3 The Song of the Siren's Shell:a dangerous sound
by Talonclawfange
Summary: A strange noise with very bad effects begins making itself heard in Hyrule. Who's making it, and where is it coming from? Link and Zelda have to find out before Hyrule's citizens are destroyed!
1. The Song of the Siren's Shell 1,2

buThe Song of the Siren's Shell/u/b  
  
By: Sonnet A.K.A. Talonclawfange  
  
( E-mail me at Talonofdayyahoo.com, but not if you're going to give me sick advertisements! I DONT WANT THEM!! I'M ONLY 16! Just feedback, please.)  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Hyrule, Link, Epona, Zelda, or anything else from Shigeru Miamoto and Nintendo's genius video game: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I wrote this story in dedication to them, since it's from the best video game of all time, created by them. The only things I own are North Hyrule, Kadien, Sea Gruffons, Cyphas and all other things not in the original video game (so don't use em' without asking me and putting that I thought them up). I also wrote this because I like reading, drawing, and, recently, writing fantasy (all talents are given to me by God, so all credit goes to him as well). I think Link is really cool - Good job, Miyamoto!   
  
Note: This story takes place after my other stories, which are: The Problem of the Swamp Fairies, Duels and Dragons, Hunt for the Dragonlord, and The War of the Kings, so you probably want to read them first or you'll be a little confused. By the way, I meant for this to be a shorter fanfiction, but failed miserably, because this story is about 54 pages long. It's somewhere between PG and PG-13, there's no sexual themes or foul language, but there's violence and blood. Enjoy!  
  
buSection 1  
  
An Inaudiable Sound/u/b  
  
"Zzzzzzzzzz......" A quiet snoring sound emitted from a soft lump.  
  
"Yo, time to rise and shine!" Chain poked at the blanket-wrapped bundle on the bed, and it let out a groan. "Hey, c'mon! You agreed to start this earlier schedule of training, so stop sleeping in!" He poked it again, and got no reply but another groan. "Gimme a break..." Chain took a few steps toward the exit of his and Link's bedroom, pretending that Zelda was outside of it. "Well princess, it looks like the great Hero of Time is glued to his bed, so he can't train with us today..." That sentence finally caught Link's attention and he threw off his blanket, jumping out of bed.  
  
"Hold on! It'll only take a minute to put my clothes on." Chain laughed as he watched his brother scramble to pull his tunic over his underclothes as fast as possible. Link grabbed his sword and left with his brother to go have a brief breakfast before training. The two of them then met Impa and Zelda in the courtyard.  
  
"It took you guys long enough." Impa complained, and Chain shot Link an irritated glance.   
  
"Eh, sorry...but I'm used to getting up iwith/i the sun, not before it!" Link said defensively. "But anyways, that's a pretty dumb excuse...I'll get up on time tomorrow, okay?"  
  
"Good idea. It will sharpen your senses if you rise early," Impa pointed out, throwing a punch at Link. He was too sleepy to be alert, so it hit him between the eyes, making both Zelda and Chain giggle a little.   
  
"Ow! Hey, no-one likes cheap shots..." Link, now very ready to train, drew his sword at Impa, who drew her own sword to block it. The two began slashing at each other, while Zelda and Chain watched.  
  
"Hey, weren't we going to have an organized training session today, Impa?" Zelda inquired.   
  
"Yes, but let's have a nice little free-for-all to warm us up," she said, blocking another one of Link's blows. Chain casted a newly learned ice spell at Zelda, who used a quick version of Nayru's Love to block it. After a few minutes of Link attacking Impa, she used a quick ninja-like jump to get behind him and grab his head in one arm. She then dropped her sword, giving him a hard noogie.   
  
"Hey, ow! I've never seen you do this kind of thing before...you're scaring me!" He said jokingly. Zelda started laughing at Link, then chanted and casted a temporary itch spell on Chain and laughed as he rolled around on the ground, scratching himself. Impa saw Zelda sitting there laughing and dropped Link, running over to the princess and tickling her. A high-pitched squeal escaped Zelda's lips as she squirmed to get out of her nanny's grasp. Soon all four of them were on the ground laughing. "Wow, Impa..." Link said, looking over at her. "I've seriously never seen you be playful before, except that one time I thought you were going to drop me from the castle window..." Impa laughed, recalling how scared Link was when she had held him out of a castle window when he was a child. She had done it to show him a good view of Death Mountain, and had had no intention of dropping him.  
  
"Impa's just serious when you're around, Link, because we're usually discussing some threat to Hyrule. Today there's nothing to worry about, so Impa's feeling happy; right, Impa?" Zelda looked over at her caretaker, who was almost like a mother to her.  
  
"Something like that." She replied. "But it's not like I'd act this way around anyone when I'm happy. Only around people who I consider to be my friends." Zelda walked over to her and hugged her.  
  
"Okay, this is getting a little too warm and fuzzy for me!" Chain complained, looking irritably at the girls.  
  
"Yeah, me too." Link agreed, getting to his feet.  
  
"Okay, okay..." Zelda let go of Impa and the two of them and Chain got up as well. Impa then began discussing fighting techniques and teaching the other three, since she was the oldest and most experienced. She then began to spar with each of them individually and watch them spar with each other, making suggestions about how they could fight better. She was in the middle of telling Chain to speak faster when she went silent mid-sentence and stared straight in front of her. Chain and Link stopped sparring for a moment and looked over at her expectantly.  
  
"What's the matter, Impa?" Chain inquired. Slowly Impa's right rand raised up to her head, and she placed it over her right ear. "Impa...?" Now all three of the younger warriors had their eyes fixed on her.  
  
"I can...hear something..." Impa muttered, staring into the space in front of her. "I feel strange." Her hand dropped to her side, and her eyes focused on Chain. "Sorry about that, Chain. You must chant your verbal spells faster, or they'll be interrupted by your opponent."  
  
"What did you hear?" Link asked the Sheikah woman.  
  
"Nothing. Get back to your training, you need to learn better defense against magic." She said, and Link and Chain resumed fighting while Zelda went over the words to her verbal spells in her mind. All went well for a couple dozen minutes, and the sun began to rise; lighting up the bright green grass in the courtyard and turning the sky a pretty shade of pinkish-orange. All of the sudden Impa got a weird look on her face and turned towards Zelda. "It's in my head...Zelda, why aren't you training?!" She demanded.  
  
"What? Hey, no need to yell! I'm reviewing the words of my verbal spells, just like you told me to." The princess said. Impa took a step towards her.   
  
"If you don't start training right now I won't train you anymore!" The Sheikah yelled.  
  
"Okay, what do you want me to do?" Zelda asked distressedly, wondering what she had done to make her caretaker so mad.  
  
"Train, you twit!" Impa yelled. Chain and Link stopped training again to look at Impa.  
  
"Hey, what's wrong with you, Impa? Zelda didn't do anything to you!" Link said, also perplexed at Impa's sudden temper.   
  
"Stay out of this, you cretin!" Impa jumped at Link, throwing a knife at him.  
  
"Whoa, cool it!" Link said, jumping out of the way. "Explain why you're so mad!" Impa jumped again, this time landing on Link. She pinned him and drew a dagger. "You've got to be joking!" Link said, struggling to get up. Chain ran up behind Impa and grabbed her from behind, pulling her off his brother. She elbowed him hard in the stomach, then grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder onto Link. Zelda gasped and was about to cast a spell on her nanny when she head the yelling of a familiar voice. The weird look on Impa's face disappeared, replaced by an exhausted one. She sat down in the grass as Cosha, yelling quite loud, ran up to the four warriors.  
  
Three weeks ago, when the griffons had come back with Link as he returned from Dracoulis and Catalin, Cosha had been appointed the griffon keeper and had acted less insane and more normal with each passing day, but now he was yelling as loud as he could.  
  
"The griffons have gone mad! They tried to kill me, help, princess Zelda!" As Cosha stopped running to catch his breath, Zelda noticed he had a large slash on his arm.  
  
"Oh, my...what's going on here?" Zelda was now getting a bit scared of all the strange things happening. Link and Chain had gotten up, both watching Impa cautiously.   
  
"Zelda, he wants you to cast a calming spell on them; right, Cosha?" Link asked him, worried that the griffons could get free and attack other people.  
  
"Yes! Before they break out of their enclosure and go on a killing spree!" Cosha yelled urgently.  
  
"This is getting stranger by the second...Naltha and Kars are both very mature and reasonable griffons...why would they go wild all of the sudden?" Zelda followed Cosha to the griffon aviary and Link and Chain stayed with Impa. Impa tiredly looked up at them from the ground.  
  
"What just happened? I feel like I turned into a monster or blacked out..." she said quietly.  
  
"Seemed more like a temper tantrum to me!" Chain shouted.  
  
"Quiet, Chain." Link told him, "I really don't think Impa would do that in her right mind...I would think she was going crazy except the fact that the griffons went crazy at the same time. This sounds kind of suspicious to me." Link said. "Maybe we should call off training with Impa today, she looks like she could use some more sleep."  
  
As the Royal Guard and Hyrule Army soldiers entered the gradually brightening courtyard to start their day of training, Impa, Link, and Chain left. After Impa had reluctantly been examined by a physician and went to sleep, Link and his brother met Zelda and Cosha by the horse stables.  
  
"Why are you guys over here?" Chain asked Zelda, "I thought the griffons were going crazy, not the horses."  
  
"Well, it looks like the horses started getting nervous and spooked about the same time the griffons went wild. I calmed the griffons and the stable master bust into the aviary, asking me to calm the horses, too. What do you think is going on?" She looked at Link for a reply; while Chain tried to calm down Cosha, who still had a freaked-out look on his face.  
  
"Well...it seems like something caused the horses, the griffons, and Impa to all act strange at the same time. It must have been something very irritating to make Impa lose her temper like that. But what would have an effect on those three that wouldn't effect anyone else?" Link's gaze fell to the ground, and he stared at it thoughtfuly..  
  
"No idea..." Zelda said, also thinking hard. Meanwhile, Cosha had finally settled down.  
  
"So Cosha, what exactly happened to the griffons?" Chain asked him.   
  
"Hm," Cosha brushed a few strands of short, very dark brown hair out of his face. "At first they were playing with each other and acting normal, then they stopped and both stood still for a moment, as if they heard something. They kept playing for a while longer, then they all of the sudden got real fierce! They started really trying to hurt each other and when I tried to break it up they attacked me! Sorry about yelling so loudly, but it's pretty scary to be in a room with two fierce griffons, both larger than horses."  
  
"It's okay," Zelda said, picking up on their conversation. "and your explanation helped a lot. You say they acted as if they heard something? Hey Link, didn't Impa also say she heard something?"  
  
"Yeah, she did! That must be it - they all heard a really high-frequency noise that usually only animals can hear, but Impa heard it too because Sheikah senses are sharper than Hylians'."  
  
"What put out that kind of noise, and so sharp that it would temporarily cause them to lose control of themselves?" Cosha pondered.  
  
"That's something I truly don't know." Zelda said sadly. "But something I really wish I knew is if whatever put out the noise did it intentionally or accidentally."  
  
"I see where you're going...this could be another enemy to Hyrule. Man, what did we ever do to anyone else?" Chain asked.  
  
"I don't know, but Hyrule always seems to have an enemy, doesn't it?" Link said quietly.  
  
"Men, always jumping to conclusions." Zelda said, looking at them. "Did it occur to you two that whatever made the sound didn't know it would cause anyone harm? I don't have any idea what made the sound, so we can't just assume it's an enemy. Anyways, I think we should wait a while and see if happens again. If it does, maybe I can use a special spell while it's happening to find out what direction it's coming from."  
  
"That sounds like a good plan. Hey Zelda, want to train with me and Chain since Impa can't train us today?"  
  
"Yes, let's go." Zelda left with Chain and Link, and Cosha went back to the aviary. The day went normally from that point on, as if the strange occurence that morning had never taken place. The griffons were calm, Impa got up after sleeping a bit, and Link, Zelda, and Chain had fun training with each other. At one point Raykel came over to them and showed them a way to focus all their strength in a powerful sword strike which was faster than a jump slash. He then left to train his own soldiers, and Impa met up with them, declaring that she felt more than healthy enough to train them. When it was almost noon and time to stop training, the four of them had lunch.  
  
"Hey Link, I think that while your brother goes and trains his horse after lunch, maybe you and I can go ride the griffons." Zelda suggested.  
  
"Uh...maybe...I don't know..." Link said, not particularly liking the idea of flying when he didn't have to.  
  
"Come on...what's wrong, scared of heights?" She asked teasingly, not knowing that he really was.  
  
"Maybe..." He said, barely speaking above a whisper.  
  
"What? You are? Are you kidding?" Zelda stared at Link, who avoided looking into her eyes.  
  
"I'm not scared of heights, I just don't like them!" He protested. Zelda burst out laughing.   
  
"Link's scared of heights...it's too much!" She giggled.  
  
"Hey, it's not that funny..." Link said glancing at Impa and Chain who had been looking at him. They both looked away, eating their food.  
  
"Sorry, Link. I didn't mean to laugh at you, but I really think that riding the griffons often might help you like heights more. It could be very good for you."   
  
"Okay, you win. The griffons need more exercise anyway." Link muttered. But inside he really didn't want to fly. iHow do I always let her talk me into things like this?/i   
  
"Oh, you guys want to ride the griffons? Okay, it'll be good because this way we can see if they need saddles or not. They insist that they don't, but you never know. I'll bring them out." He walked towards the aviary, which was a structure that was half made of stone walls, and half bars. It had a door that the griffons could open themselves and come out any time, but it had been locked that morning when they got fierce. Cosha called their names and the griffons came out.  
  
Naltha was a female and had reddish feathers with black stripes, and her cat half had white fur. Kars had white feathers with grey stripes and his cat half was black. They were both about the same size, which was a little bigger than a horse, and both had greenish-yellow eyes. Zelda turned into Sheik so her dress wouldn't get in the way, and jumped onto Naltha's back.  
  
"Feeling better, Naltha?" She asked her mount.  
  
"Oh yes, I've been feeling just fine, and so has Kars. We don't know what came over us this morning! How are you?" While Sheik had a spirited convesation with Naltha, Link managed to pull himslf up onto Kars's back.  
  
"Do you fly smoothly, Kars?" Link asked him.  
  
"I do by myself, but I've never had a passenger before. This should be very interesting!" The griffon answered, smiling broadly.  
  
"Oh, great..." Link made sure he had a good grip on the griffon.  
  
"Well, are you guys ready to go up?" Naltha asked.  
  
"Of course!" Sheik said happily.  
  
"As ready as I'll ever be." Link said, less than happily. The two griffons took flight, ascending slowly at first and then catching the wind with their feathery bird wings. Link and Zelda soon discovered that the griffons flew very smoothly and had no need for saddles. They flew for a long time, despite Link's desire to land after five minutes, and soon Link found himself looking around rather than clinging to Kars's back. "Maybe this isn't so bad, once you get used to it," He said to Sheik, whose griffon was flying right next to his. After a few hours the griffons got tired, and they finally landed. Soon after it was dinner time, and Link and Chain joined the Royal Family and their bodyguards at the table. Daphnes Hyrule listened to Link and Zelda's explanation of what caused the animals and Impa to act strange, and he said that he agreed with them.  
  
"My only question is, if the noise does sound again and you do find out where it's coming from by means of Zelda's spell, what are you going to do about it?" The King asked his daughter. Her and Link had discussed this while riding the griffons.  
  
"We'll go in the direction my enchantment points." Zelda said simply, "We'll find out what is causing the noise and try to stop it peacefully."  
  
"We? Who said you were going anywhere?" The King asked. "You are the princess and you should stay at your castle. Besides, the trip may be dangerous. You should just let Link go."  
  
"But Link always gets all the fun! I want to go with him this time, father. We can't pinpoint the source of the sound if I don't tag along and maintain my spell." Zelda explained. The King sighed.   
  
"Link, I don't doubt your ability to protect the princess, but I want Impa and another member of the Royal Guard to go if Zelda goes."  
  
"I'll go!" Chain volunteered.  
  
"An experienced member of the Royal Guard." The King corrected himself.  
  
"Drat." Chain said.  
  
"I'm sure Sohran wouldn't mind coming," Link said. "He's always saying that he wishes he could do something more interesting than train all day, so I bet he'd love to come; that is, if all this noise buisiness is as serious as we think it is."  
  
"Yes, we'll just have to wait and see if it happens again." Zelda said, and that was the end of the conversation. After dinner Link went to Hyrule Field and rode Epona a bit, since she had gotten jealous of Kars. Link then retired to his room and found Chain already asleep. Link decided to go straight to sleep as well, so he would be able to get up in the morning without being tired. He got into his bed and fell asleep quickly, thinking about the strange sound.  
  
buSection 2  
  
Back to the Swamp/u/b  
  
This morning, Link poked Chain to get him up.  
  
"Come on...time to 'rise and shine!' Just like you told me." Link said, poking him again.  
  
"Yeah, yeah. I'm getting up...iwithout/i groaning and being lazy like you were yesterday." Chain got up and as soon as the two of them were ready, they ate breakfast and met Zelda and Impa in the field, just like yesterday.   
  
"This time, guys; if I start to act strange again I want you to pin me and not let me up until I'm normal, okay? I don't even remember what I did yesterday. Like I said, it's similar to blacking out so I'll have no idea what I'm doing." Impa said, looking seriously at Link and Chain.  
  
"No problemo, Impa." Chain said, and then the training began. The first thing they did was have Zelda practice her verbal spells (like the itch one) and her nonverbal ones (like Nayru's Love and Din's Fire) while the other three dodged. Chain was hit a few times, but was in the process of learning a shield spell and said he wouldn't be hit next time. After that exercise it was time for Chain to do the casting and Zelda dodged with Impa and Link. All was going fine and at sunrise the Royal Guard and Hyrule Army joined the warriors in the field of the courtyard.  
  
Suddenly Link heard a very disturbing high-pitched sound. It hurt his ears a little, so he put his hands over them.   
  
"Zelda, Impa, Chain! You guys better watch out, because I can hear a weird high-pitched noise! This isn't good..." The three of them stopped training, all of their eyes on Link. iWhatever this is, I have to resist it! I can't let it do to me what it did to Impa./i The sound stopped, and Link lowered his hands. "Well, that's weird. I can't hear it anymore."  
  
"The same thing happened to me, Link. I heard it briefly and then it stopped. Later I heard it again, and it sounded like it was right in my head. It was too much...I guess we'll just have to keep an eye on you." Impa said. "But we don't know when or if it will effect you, so until then let's just train normally."  
  
"Okay." Link agreed, hoping he wouldn't go mad in the middle of a fight with Zelda. To everyone's surprise, they trained until lunchtime and still nothing had happened to Link. Afterwards Chain went to train his horse again (it was a dark brown female, named Rilla), and Link didn't know what Zelda and Impa were going to do, because he was leaving. He had promised the Kokiri that he would visit them that day, so he went to the forest. When he got there, he was greeted by Saria.  
  
"Well, it's about time you pay us a visit, Link! I haven't seen you since the warrior contest!" She complained, hugging him.  
  
"Sorry about that...I guess I've become so involved in my training that I don't spend as much time with my friends as I should. Say, are the Know-It-All Brothers around?" Link asked.  
  
"Of course they are. Where else would they be but here, silly?" Saria began walking toward Mido's house and Link followed her. "Right now their lecturing Mido because he planted flowers too close to the Deku Tree iagain./i He just doesn't get the concept that if they're too close, the Deku Tree will shade them and they wont get enough sunlight to grow. This is like the sixth time he's done it!" The two of them entered the tree stump house and the Know-It-All Brothers stopped talking to say 'hi' to them.   
  
"Sorry if we're interrupting-" Link began, but a brother cut him off.  
  
"No need to worry. You see we are done talking to Mido now and can talk to anyone who wants to talk. Of course if you had come in a few minutes ago we would still be lecturing, and-"  
  
"Okay, we get it." Saria said quickly. A brother could really yap on if you got him started. "I think Link wants to talk to you guys." The brothers turned their attention to Link, while Mido simply sat, glaring at him.  
  
"Do you guys know what kind of an object can make a very high-frequency sound that only animals and humans with very good hearing can hear? Now this isn't just a small noise, it's a noise intense enough to make them temporarily lose their minds."  
  
"You know Link, that's a very interesting question because yesterday morning some of the tame wolfoses around the forest burst into the Kokiri Village, acting very violent, like they'd lost their minds." Saria said.  
  
"Yes, and as we told you yesterday, Saria, it was caused by a noise like the one Link is describing," a brother said. "This kind of noise can be made by some animals, but not intense enough to make things go crazy, so it had to be something else. It must be a device for making sound like a powerful metal fork or an enchanted horn of some sort. By the way, us Kokiri heard a weird noise this morning, so if it was made by the same thing as yesterday, there must be a way to magically change the frequency so that only certain types of creatures or only creatures with a certain level of hearing can pick it up. Whatever's making the noise must be a very strange object, and we must-"  
  
"Thank you for your information." Link said, wondering if a brother could recite an entire essay in thirty seconds. "I also heard the noise this morning so maybe it has something to do with they way Kokiris hear."  
  
"But you aren't a Kokiri!" Mido pointed out.  
  
"Yeah, but I grew up with the same lifestyle in the Lost Woods and care the Deku Tree gave all of us, so I must hear like a Kokiri. Or something..." Link got a confused look on his face. "Ahem, well I didn't come here just to chat about weird noises! How are you all doing? And Mido...why are you looking at me like that? Are you still mad that I didn't tell you I was Link the first time I saw you?" He asked, looking at the little Kokiri.  
  
"As a matter of fact I am! It was totally rude! I think you should have told us all who you are. After all, most Kokiris are your fiends! What were you worried about?" Mido asked suspiciously.  
  
"Nothing, really. It was just so strange to see you all my height one day and then come back twice as tall. It may have been seven years for you guys, but it was like a day to me. It was really freaky and I thought it might scare you too, so I just didn't say anything." Link explained.  
  
"We were really worried about you, Link." Saria said. "Yep, even Mido over there was sad to see you go. He acted like he was happy at first, but then it started showing..."  
  
"Oh, be quiet. I knew he was coming back the whole time! I just didn't recognize him when he did, that's all!"  
  
"Heh heh, it's good to be back for a little while," Link said. Mido and Saria's fairies began flying around Link's head. "But I sure do miss Navi! It really stinks that no one knows where she went or what she's doing. I hope she's safe..." Link went silent, having nothing more to say at the moment. A bit later he helped the Kokiri fix a wall that had been damaged by the wolfoses. He then cut all the grass in Mido's yard and called Epona and the Kokiris took turns riding her with Link. He spent quite a long time there and only left when it started getting dark.   
  
He rode home on Epona (who was not even close to tired) and saw Zelda standing outside the castle as he approached it. He waved to her, smiling.  
  
"Hey, princess! I have an idea of what might have made the sound this morning and yesterday!" As Epona got closer, Link once again heard the notorious noise he was talking about. Only this time, it was so loud it made his head feel like it was going to explode. "Aahhh...what the?!" Link didn't pay attention to what he was doing, and fell off Epona, landing on his knees and holding his head. "I can't stand it!" Link looked over at Zelda, who was rapidly chanting a strange enchantment. The noise in his head got louder, and Link vaguely remembered wondering if he was going mad before his world went black.  
  
For a while he felt like he was floating, but then he got an urge to fight he had never experienced before, and tried to resist it even though it didn't seem like there was anyone to fight in his weird, black dream. For a moment all was silent as the sound stopped, then Link woke up.  
  
With a small shock he found that he was laying flat on the ground with a peculiar pain on the back of his head, staring up at Zelda. It was like waking up from sleep, but Link didn't recall opening his eyes or even closing them in the first place.  
  
"Link, are you okay? I hope I didn't hurt you!" Zelda said, a worried look on her face.  
  
"Hurt me? What do you mean by that?" Link sat up, rubbing the back of his head. "And why does my head hurt?"  
  
"Because of me. Don't you remember? Just a few seconds ago, you drew your sword and started slashing at me! I kicked you in the head pretty hard." Zelda said, "It was the noise, wasn't it?"  
  
"Yes, and I don't remember attacking you at all. This is crazy! Whatever is causing this...we've got to stop it before it makes a noise that all Hylians can hear!" Link declared.  
  
"Well, here's a piece of good news. I casted the enchantment and it's pointing in the direction the sound came from. It's pointing northwest, towards Ganon's Swamp."  
  
"Then I guess that's where we're going tomorrow. But Zelda, that swamp is really dangerous." Link said.  
  
"You're not suggesting that I should stay behind, are you?" Zelda gave him an angry look.  
  
"Actually, I think you should definately come so we can find where the noise is caming from, but if a lot of people go into the swamp there's more chance we'll sink in the muck. I have a better idea - we should fly over the swamp on the griffons and when we find the spot the sound is coming from, we'll go down to it. That way, we'll be spending as little time in the swamp as possible." Link said.  
  
"Sounds good, I just have to get father to agree on it. That should be about as easy as getting a pig to fly," She said with a tone of irritation. "When will you men ever understand that I can protect myself?"  
  
"We don't think you're weak or anything, take my word for it. It's just that...you're the future of this kingdom, and you get kidnapped too often!" Link said.  
  
"I do not! I could have broken out of the Dragonlord's lair...I just wanted to see if you would save me!" Zelda exclaimed.   
  
"Yeah, isure/i you could have..." Link said sarcastically.  
  
"Hmpf! You just wait until I get iyou/i out of trouble, then you'll know how I feel!"  
  
"Princess Zelda." A guard walked out onto the field."The King has asked me to remind you that-"  
  
"Yes, I know! It's time for dinner. Will father ever stop treating me like a baby? Let's go, Link." Zelda offered him a hand but couldn't really pull him up and almost fell over. Link got up by himself, smirking at her.  
  
"Maybe you should do more push-ups." He suggested playfully.  
  
"You just shut up. Push-ups aren't becoming for a lady!" Link put a hand over his mouth in an effort to stifle his laughter.  
  
"Then turn into Sheik and do some..."  
  
"Be quiet!" Zelda ordered, shoving Link.  
  
"Heh heh. Sure, but I guess you won't hear what I heard from the Know-It-All Brothers today..." Link trailed off.  
  
"Fine. It's better if you tell father and me at the same time at the dinner table anyway." Zelda said, and the guard followed her and Link in, closing the drawbridge after them.  
  
"Absolutely not."  
  
"But father, I must-"  
  
"No."  
  
"We can't take more soldiers because-"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Link can't find the sound without-"  
  
"No, and no again, Zelda! I can't let my only daughter, the very ifuture/i of Hyrule, fly over the most dangerous part of Hyrule, not knowing where she's going or how long it will take to get there! You could fall off your griffon and plummet to your death. You might not find the sound for weeks and run out of food. You may run into more monsters than you can handle and be torn to pieces! You may inot/i fly over the swamp with only two griffons, Link, and a week's supply of food - I forbid it!"  
  
"Father, I must! I don't mean to be disrespectful, but there may not be citizens in Hyrule for me to rule later if we don't do something. This sound doesn't just make people angry, it drives them completely insane! You know that Link would never try to hurt me in a million years, right? Well when he heard that sound, he was swinging at me so hard he could have killed me if I let my guard down and he didn't have a light-magic-filled sword. Seriously, if another sound is made that all Hylians can hear, the population of Hyrule could kill itself!" Zelda paused for breath, realizing that in her urgency she had spoken very fast. "If I don't go with Link, we can't find the source of the sound, and it will go unstopped. However much time it will take us to find the sound is increased every moment we sit here discussing it. We must leave immediately!"  
  
"I am sorry, Zelda, but you won't be leaving at all. It is simply too risky. Some guards are scared to go into Ganon's Swamp," The King said, a little ashamed that his guards weren't braver, "And Link was almost killed the last time he went, so that tells you how dangerous it is. Maybe this sound isn't as bad as you think it is. I can just tell all the Hylians to stay in their houses in separate rooms so they don't destroy each other. Perhaps the last sound Link and the Kokiri heard was the last sound of that sort that will ever be made. Even if it isn't, the sound can't be that bad because the Kokiri sent us word that none of them were harmed."  
  
"Dad, the sound makes people crazy with anger, not dumb. If people are in separate rooms they'll simply come out of them to kill each other!" Zelda said, beginning to get mad because of her father's stubborness.  
  
"The reason the Kokiri weren't harmed is because the Deku Tree can control them at any time. They were probably going to hurt each other and the Tree stopped them." Link said, looking over at the thoughtful King. "Did the Kokiri tell you why they weren't hurt?"  
  
"No, they didn't include any details." The King sighed. "I guess I'll consider your suggestion, Zelda, but I think we should wait awhile. These matters need careful thought."  
  
"But father-"  
  
"No buts! I'll tell you if I've come to a conclusion tomorrow night." The King said with an air of sterness and authority that discouraged further discussion. Link and Zelda glanced at each other nervously. Not only had they angered the King, but now there was no way he was going to give them permission to leave immediately, if at all.  
  
After dinner and later that night, Link was walking by himself down the hall the led to his room, intending to retire, when he heard quickly approaching footsteps behind him.  
  
"Wait, Link!" Link heard Zelda's voice and turned to see her jogging up to him. "Man, it took forever to get rid of Impa! Link, no matter what Dad says, we have to leave real soon, even if it means sneaking out."  
  
"What? Disobey the King? We could be tried for treason." Zelda put a hand on Link's arm, staring at him pleadingly. He looked away from her down the hall, thinking for a moment. "Yeah, you're right. We have to go, and the King isn't about to let us, is he?"  
  
"Nope. I love him, but he's as stubborn as a mule! He's making a bad decision, trust me. He hasn't heard the sound or seen anyone effected by it, so he doesn't know how bad it is, and blast it, he treats me like a kid and won't let us go because he's scared I'll get hurt!"  
  
"Okay. We'll sneak out in the hours just before morning, when everyone's asleep. Sneaking out and maybe getting in trouble is much better than letting this crazy sound continue." Link said, returning his gaze to Zelda's face.  
  
"Great! I'll meet you at the kitchen an hour and a half before sunrise so we can get provisions, and don't forget to bring your bedroll. After that we can get the griffons and I'll renew my enchantment-" Zelda went silent abruptly as the two friends heard approaching footsteps. "Bye, Link!" Zelda said, and began to casually stroll towards her room.  
  
"There. Do you think that will do the job, Remorie?" A woman held aloft a beutiful shell for her young pet water-type dragon to inspect. The dragon looked it over doubtfully.   
  
"Perhaps it will, Lady; perhaps not. It will definately be different than last time, but I don't know if it will do what you want it to." The dragon was a light bluish-grey, and had dark green and teal wavy-looking fins down her back and a large, flat tail for easy swimming. The creature had bright orange eyes and sharp claws covered in a stinging fluid similar to a jellyfish's stinging tentacles.  
  
"Well, we can only find out by guess and check, I suppose. I'll try it tomorrow, if it'll even work. Remorie, why don't you put the snakes back into their pool?" The woman said, "I'm going to sleep. Enchanting snakes and shells over and over again can get annoying, especially since the second two tries had little effect and the first had none at all! Oh well...see you in the morning, Remorie."  
  
"Good night, Lady." The serpent-like dragon replied.   
  
Zelda and Link stood in the shadows outside the kitchen building, silently listening to the cook's and kitchen helpers' snores through the wall they were standing next to.  
  
"So now what?" Link asked. "Will the cook give us food when he knows the King doesn't want us to leave?"  
  
"That's just the thing - he doesn't know. The King doesn't spread around news quickly unless it's urgent, so the cook probably has no idea whatsoever of what's going on. We'll just tell him we're leaving with the King's permission."  
  
"We'll tell them a white lie?" Link asked, looking at Zelda dissaprovingly.  
  
"Would you prefer us breaking into the kitchen and whisking away the food, like common thieves?" She asked.  
  
"You have a point, I guess. But won't they get in trouble for helping us out?" he inquired.  
  
"No, King Daphnes is stubborn and follows the old rules strictly, but he'll understand that it's our fault and not the cooks', so he won't punish them." Zelda walked up to the door of the kitchen workers' dwelling, knocking on it. In the day it would have seemed a quiet knock, but the knock shattered the relative silence, making it seem very loud. The sleepy-eyed cook opened the door, and was imediately alert when he saw the princess.  
  
"Princess Zelda, what a pleasant surprise! How may I serve My Lady?" The cook asked, bowing with a graceful sweep of his arm. Zelda told the cook that they needed a week's supply of food because they were going on a special mission for the King. If the cook was suspicious he didn't show it as he began packing travel food into two bags. As soon as it was done, the cook went back to sleep and Link and Zelda went to the aviary. Cosha wasn't there, but they didn't need him since they were already friends with the griffons. Zelda woke up Naltha and the female griffon woke up her reluctant partner. Zelda explained the kind of trip they would be going on, while the griffons listened. She told them that she didn't know how long they would have to fly, and asked how long they could fly without resting.  
  
"Pretty long," Kars replied, "yesterday we stopped early because we were getting just a little tired, but we could have flown much longer if we wanted to. We can fly for about four hours without rest, but if we do have about twenty minutes of rest, we can fly for four or five hours more. At least iI/i can, I don't know about you, Naltha..." The griffon said, grinning playfully.  
  
"Tch! I can fly longer than you anytime, anywhere!" Naltha said, smiling and pushing him a bit with her feline leg. "Well, you two seem to be in a hurry, so let's go!" Zelda turned into Sheik and leaped onto Naltha's back, and Link quickly got onto Kars's. After securing their supplies to the griffons' backs, Link and Zelda were ready to go. With a swoosh of wind from their wings that kicked up dust beneath the creatures, they took to the air. After a few minutes of hard flapping to gain altitude, the griffons flattened out their wings and glided in the general direction of Ganon's Swamp. Sheik began renewing her spell, and soon the air in front of her hands started glowing. A bright, white ball of light appreared, with a thin needle of light protruding from it. This needle pointed towards the swamp, and Zelda directed Naltha so that her path of flight was pointing in the exact same direction of the needle.  
  
The griffons reached the swamp quickly, and the odors of decaying trees and brush somehow reached the griffon riders far above it. iI never thought I'd come back to the swamp for such a strange reason,/i Link thought, iI just hope this will be quick, because this swamp stinks!/i Despite the faint stench, Link and Zelda were enjoying their flight (as long as Link didn't look down, he was fine). They were soon relaxing in the cool breeze and moonlight, and seeing no danger ahead, began to snooze a bit. They were unaware of the hazardous weather they were approaching. A while later, Link awoke for no apparent reason.   
  
"How long have we been flying?" Link asked, yawning. "For two hours or so." Kars replied. "Oh." Link said, staring sleepily at Naltha. Then he realized it was rather hard to see her. At the same time, he noticed it was dark when the sun should have risen already. Fully awake, he looked around and dicovered they were flying in a thick, grey, swirling cloud of fog. For the first time he noticed the moisture clinging to his skin, which was not uncomfortable but strange because he hadn't noticed it at first. He couldn't see his friend on the back of her griffon.  
  
"Zelda?" Link called out, somewhat uneasy at the fact that he could only see Naltha's backside through the mist. Naltha slowed up a bit and Zelda came into view. To Link's horror, Zelda's skin was black and she seemed to be covered in a thick, green slime. Her hair was thin and stringy and her eyes glowed like a demon's.  
  
"Aaaahhhhhh!" Link felt weak as he screamed at the logic-defying body of his friend.  
  
"What is iwrong/i with you, Link? Do you see something on me?" Mistifyingly, Zelda (Sheik) looked normal again. Her skin was the normal color and she was perfectly clean, looking like there was nothing wrong with her at all. Link was a little more than disturbed at what he had just seen, and stuttered as he tried to quickly come up with an excuse for his scream.  
  
"I-ah....thought I saw something...in the mist, but it must have been a bird or something. Sorry about that." Link felt bad about not being completely honest with her, but doubted she would belive him if he told her what he had really seen. "Are we still over the swamp?"  
  
"Yes, I used a sight spell to check a few minutes ago. We're right on course with my enchantment, too," Sheik said, giving Link a suspicious look but not saying anything.  
  
"Good." Link said, going silent. Was he insane? That had definately been a hallucination, but why was he seeing things, and such horrible things? It creeped him out that he had no explanation. The four kept flying at a steady pace, and made good time for the next two hours. Almost the whole time Link was thinking about the freakish illusion. He thought once or twice about telling Sheik, but each time determined that she would think he was mad and it was better not to scare her. But then again, it might be good to warn her in case anything dangerous came of it. Link threw that thought aside, thinking that it wasn't dangerous to see things that instantly vanish. During the flight there was little conversation, each member of the group too alert and uneasy in the mist to talk. Link felt a familiar foreboding from being in Ganon's Swamp again and reminded himself that the feeling of anticipation and anxiousness was the very reason Ganon's Swamp had its name; and even though the feeling was common, it should not be dismissed or ignored. 


	2. The Song of the Siren's Shell 3,4

buSection 3  
  
Cyphas of the Swamp/u/b  
  
Link was feeling rather sick of staying in one position for so long, and was almost relived when Kars announced his wings were getting tired. Link heard Naltha snicker, but secretly the female griffon's wings were also tiring. The griffons began to fly low, looking for the tops of the trees, but couldn't see them through the thick mist. They kept descending at a leisurely pace, expecting to see the decaying treetops any moment.   
  
Sheik, who had been carefully maintaining her enchantment (the enchantment was an easy one for her, so she had no problems sustaining it for long amounts of time), stopped holding it and it faded into nothing. She figured they didn't need it on the ground. Suddenly the enchantment reappeared without Sheik calling it. A startled yelp escaped Sheik's lips as it exploded into a million sharp fragments, some tearing through her skin and some shredding Naltha's feathers. The blood from the cuts looked like red ribbons as the shards flew past.  
  
"Zelda, are you alright?" Link asked calmly. Sheik looked over at Link, who was hard to see through the mist but should have been able to see the enchantment explode.Was he blind? She then looked at herself and found she was alright. She wasn't cut up anymore, and her griffon's feathers were in perfect order.  
  
"Yes, I'm fine." She said, wondering what had just happened to her. One moment she had cuts all over her, the next she was spotless! How could she explain this to Link? "An insect flew into my face, it's nothing." Link nodded, buying the story easily. iI must have been falling asleep or something.../iZelda thought to herself, hoping she wouldn't fall into dreamland while flying ever again. Naltha and Kars had been descending for several minutes now, but couldn't seem to find the ground. It was beginning to get disturbing. "I checked the swampland under us just twenty minutes ago! We weren't ithat/i high, so where on earth is the ground?" Sheik looked at Link, thinking for some illogical reason he might have an explanation. His half-hidden form shrugged. Zelda squinted down, but could barely see ten feet in the mist.  
  
"We should have landed when weather conditions got this bad." Link said, also trying vainly to see the ground. "This mist is so disorienting...I wouldn't even know if we're upside down or not if I didn't feel the gravity!" He complained.  
  
"I know what you mean-" Zelda went silent, suddenly straining to hear something. "Did you hear that, Link?" She asked, looking over at her mist-shrouded friend.   
  
"Yeah, I did...it sounded like the squeaking of an animal or something. Maybe a bat." He said, listening hard. They both heard the noise again, and looked at each other. Just ahead there was a blurred black form materializing from the mist, and it became clearer as it approached. Kars and Naltha stopped flying forward and hovered, waiting for the unknown form to come to them. Both griffons and their riders squinted at it, trying to make it out. Before it came into focus, other black forms appeared around it. The number kept increasing until finally the first one was close enough to be seen clearly. It was an ugly black beast. Its ebony skin was stretched thinly across its pointy bones, making it look very skinny. It had sharp white teeth and claws, and a pair of rapidly flapping insect wings. It made a bat-like screetch as its shiny red eyes locked on Naltha.  
  
"Dive!" Sheik yelled at her griffon, and the creature quickly obeyed. The goat-sized black monster slashed at the space Naltha had been in, then, realizing it had hit nothing, screetched in rage and dived after the griffon. Link and Kars were about to follow when more of the little black monsters appeared out of the mist and attacked. Making an eagle-like war cry, Kars tried to bite one with his sharp beak. To the griffon's surprise, his beak went right through the creature, doing no damage whatsoever. The black monster raked Kars's forehead with its claws and the griffon screamed, going into a dive. As the griffon righted itself, Link saw that they were once again flying next to Sheik and Naltha, who were still being persued by the first creature. Link got out his bow.  
  
"Stop bugging the girls!" He yelled, firing an ice arrow at the black beast. It was forced to dodge the arrow and Naltha flew ahead, out of reach. By this time all the other monsters had followed Kars, and were now swarming around him. The griffon scratched at them, but blood dripped into his eyes and he could barely fly straight, let alone take one down. Link tried to hit them with his sword, but just like Kars's beak, the blade went right through them. The little creeps started slashing at Kars's wings, and the griffon knew he could not stay airborne for long. The first monster, which seemed to be their leader and had forgotten all about Naltha and Sheik, hung back and gleefully watched the beseiged griffon thrash as it was bitten and scratched. Finally it dove forward, aiming its claws for the head of the Hylian who had almost shot it. Link ducked and the creep flew over, nearly running into one of its bretheren, who was gnawing on Kars's tail. It growled and flew alongside the griffon, maintaing speed to match Kars's. The black beast reached out a wickedly curved claw, giving the poor griffon a deep laceration over its ribs. Screaming in rage, Kars kicked/scratched at it with his feline foot. To his surprise the foot collided with the beast's head, claws digging deep, and the creep died instantly. Their 'leader' gone, all the other black beasts vanished in a puff of smoke.  
  
"All right, Kars! That little fly didn't have a chance." Link said, patting the griffon's uninjured side.  
  
"Gotta...land..." Kars said exhaustedly, and without warning his wings gave out.  
  
"Whaaaahh!" Link yelled, clinging to the limp griffon as the wind from falling threatened to tear him out of his seat. He glanced downward and saw rapidly approaching trees through the mist. iWell, we found the ground./i Link thought unhappily as he braced himself. The falling griffon plunged through the trees, their decaying and sharp limbs tearing at him and breaking off as his weight hit them. Finally the injured griffon and his shaken rider hit the wet ground, swamp muck flying in all directions. Although the sticky slime was gross, it cusioned their fall, preventing further damage. "Ugh...I don't think I ever want to do that again." Link said, pulling himself out of the muck and standing next to Kars. The griffon was laying on his side, breathing heavily. "Poor guy..." Link said, rubbing the panting griffon's head. "We'll have to wait until Zelda gets here. Maybe she can heal your big slash." He said, getting out his Arlia plant. "In the meantime, I can take care of your small wounds with this." Kars nodded weakly, and Link got to work. When he had taken care of about half of the small bites and cuts, he heard a voice from above.  
  
"Liiiiink! Are you down there?" It was Sheik, yelling from Naltha's back.  
  
"Yes! From the sound of it, we're directly below you!" Link yelled, still rubbing his plant on Kars's bloody lion tail. Link heard some rapid flapping and looked up. He saw Naltha descending through the open space Kars had created by falling through the trees. Except for the hole the griffon had made, the interlocking branches of the near-dead trees made a sort of twisted, sharp roof over the swamp; so it was somewhat of a good thing that the griffon had broken branches during his fall, making room for Naltha to land. Naltha hovered over to a spot a few feet away from Kars and landed, her paws making squishing noises as her weight pushed them into the slimey ground.  
  
"Is Kars okay?" She asked worridly as her rider dismounted. Sheik ran over to Kars and examined his slashed side.  
  
"He'll be fine if I can heal this," Sheik said. She transformed back into Zelda so she could use her healing power more easily. "Let's see...I can heal it, but it has bacteria in it and it will become infected if I heal it now. We have to wash it or the sealed bacteria will make his condition even worse," She said.  
  
"Uh-oh..." Link said, pausing in the process of healing the griffon's last small wound. "I just healed a bunch of wounds, did I seal the bacteria or whatever?" He asked, turning to Zelda.  
  
"No, Arlia makes sure bacteria is expelled from small wounds." Zelda explained.  
  
"So I can just rub the Arlia on the big wound to get rid of the bacteria and and then you can heal it?" Link asked.  
  
"Um, no. It doesn't work that way. You'll get rid of the bacteria on top, but can do nothing about the deep stuff; and there must be lots of that coming from the claws of our dirty little attacker. That thing looked like it was covered in diseases." Zelda said. She stared at the bleeding wound in front of her, wondering how on earth they would find enough clean water in a swamp to heal it. They had brought drinking water, but if they used that they would have to use almost all of it, and that obviously wasn't a very good idea. "Hey, I remember! There's this plant that grown only in the swamp; it's kinda like Arlia, except it's used for cleaning wounds, even deep ones, when there's no water. I read it in a book. Anyway, this plant's pretty rare, and it only grows around the muddy pools in swamps. Think you can find some, Link?"  
  
"I'll do my best. What's it look like?" He inquired, looking around in case there were any pools nearby. He could see nothing beyond about twenty or thirty feet in the mist, and saw no pools. After thinking for a moment, Zelda replied.  
  
"It has greenish brown petals, so it would blend in if not for the bright yellow stem. Just look for the yellow stem growing out of the muck next to a pool. Try to hurry. Kars's wound isn't bleeding fast enough to kill him any time soon, but the longer he waits the worse it'll get." She said. "And Link...be careful, okay? I thought I heard something out there."  
  
"Don't worry. I'll try to come back in one piece," Link promised. He saw nothing but slimy ground, mist, and dying trees in all directions, so he simply started walking forward. He knew he wouldn't get lost because his weight made deep footprints in the ground. They filled with water as soon as his boots vacated them, and were very visible and easy to track. He thought he would be the only one tracking them. After a dozen minutes of walking forward, hearing nothing but the squish of his boots in the swampy ground, Link stopped and looked around. iStill nothing... well, at least I haven't bumped into any monsters, /ihe thought, trying to look on the bright side. He continued walking, and soon a familiar feeling of foreboding sunk in. Irritated by his own feeling, Link drew his sword and kept going. He stepped over a large root sticking up out of the ground in front of him and stared ahead as he kept walking. The grey mist combined with the dark browns and blacks of the swamp made the place look very dull, but Link forced himself to stay alert despite his boring surroundings.   
  
After about forty five minutes, Link came upon a murky pool. It had plant life in and above it, but nothing like the flower Zelda had described. Link trudged on, searching the misty swamp floor with no results for the next hour and a half. He was beginning to wonder if he'd ever find another pool, when he looked up and saw one in front of him. He looked around it, trying to focus in the mist. The water was particularly dirty, filled with slime,dirt, decaying plants, and who knows what else. He looked on the other side of it and to his relief he saw a small yellow stalk sticking up from the muck. Link began to walk around the pool towards the plant, but froze in his place as he saw a ripple disturb the formerly calm surface of the slimey water. Slowly he turned his blade towards the water's surface, ready for anything. Anything, that is, except what happened.   
  
A fat, muddy, squid-like tentacle popped out of the slime behind Link, and he quickly turned towards it, slashing the tip off with his blade. While his attention was on that tentacle, another emerged from the water and wrapped around Link's ankle, yanking him off his feet. While he fell, the remains of the first tentacle seized his sword, pulling out of reach. The tentacle was instantly disintigrated by the power of the Master Sword, but Link still couldn't reach the sword as the second brown, sticky tentacle quickly dragged his bottom half into the thick waters of the swamp pool. Link looked for something solid to hold onto as he was dragged farther into the pool, but there was nothing close to him. He took out his hookshot and fired the hook at the trunk of a nearby tree. The hook stuck, but as the chain retracted Link was not pulled towards the tree. The hook came out of the tree and back to the hookshot, because the decaying bark was too weak to hold it.  
  
"Not good!" Link said, knowing the situation was slipping out of his hands. He was now up to his chest in thick, filthy water, which sucked him down like quicksand. Of course he had tried kicking at the tentacle which had pulled him into the water and was making him sink faster, but every movement he made only aided the creature's efforts, so he went still. Bubbles rose out of the mudlike water as he slowly sunk deeper, and there was nothing he could do. He sucked in a breath of air as the slime came up to his chin, beginning to swallow his head.   
  
Link heard a noise in the decaying bushes in front of him, and suddenly a figure jumped out. Link had no time to see what it was though, because he was forced to close his eyes as mucky water came over them. After a few ominous seconds of slow sinking, Link felt two strong hands grip the front of his tunic and begin to heave upward. The force brought his head above water and he spit slime off his lips and breathed. He still couldn't see but felt himself being slowly lifted out of the water, which gurgled reluctantly as it gave him up. At last his feet were out of the water, and Link felt the person holding him sever the tentacle latched onto his boot with a kicking motion. Now that he was completely free of the water, his savior tossed him roughly onto the ground next to the pool. Link wiped the slime off his eyes with the back of his gloves (and it's a wonder that worked because his gloves were slimey, too), feeling the eyes of the guy that saved him watching. As soon as he could see, he looked up at him. Link could barely suppress a gasp at what he saw. It wasn't a him, it was a her. At least Link ithought/i it was a her. He had never seen anything like her before. She looked like a Hylian, except her skin was a very pale teal and her ears looked like fins, just like a zora's. She also had fins on the undersides of her forearms, but that's where the resemblance to a zora ended. She had bright, yellow (slightly tinted with green) eyes with catlike slits for irises. Her hair was navy blue, spikey and kind of short. It would probably be a few inches away from touching her shoulders if it wasn't spiked. She wore a shirt made of leather-looking black material, and her pants and gloves were made of the same stuff. Her pants, which were almost poofy despite the leathery looking material, were tucked into knee-high sturdy brown boots, which had blades on the bottom. The strong-looking female who had saved Link's life looked down at him with a rather annoyed look on her face, hands on hips.  
  
"Idiot! You've never been in a swamp before, have you? You were almost killed by that swampsquid! How could you be so stupid?" She demanded, glaring at the astounded Link. He sat with his mouth open dumbly for a few seconds, then made an effort to compose himself.  
  
"I, ah..." He got up, trying to brush all the slime off his tunic. When he was done, he looked up at the woman, which stood at least five inches taller than him. "I mean...thank you." He said, trying to smile. It was difficult to smile at someone glaring at you so fiercely.  
  
"You sure are lucky I came along, or you'd be bog food now. Try to grow a brain! I've accidentally stepped on creatures brighter than you!" She huffed, turning around to pick up his sword. She held it up, and despite her mean attitude, Link knew she wasn't evil or the sword would have zapped her. "Nice sword for such an idiot." She said, handing it to him.  
  
"Thanks again. My name's Link." He said, sheathing his sword and extending a slime-covered hand. The woman looked momentarily surprised when Link said his name, but said nothing. She glared at his hand disgustedly for a few seconds, then turned away. She walked to the other end of the pool, and picked the yellow-stemmed flower Link had come for. She walked back to him.  
  
"My name is Cyphas." Link thought it sounded like a masculine name, but didn't say so. "You're looking for this, aren't you?" She asked, a mocking smile creeping over her lips. It was kind of freaky because she had sharp teeth.  
  
"Yeah. How did you know?" Link asked, puzzled. Cyphas walked past him and began following his footprints. She then stopped, turning back towards him.  
  
"Well? You coming or not?" Link quickly jogged up behind her and she kept walking. "We need to get back to your girlfriend and your griffons and tell them why it's a bad idea to use this plant on scratches from an illusion imp."  
  
"W-what? Have you been following me or something? What's an illusion imp?" Link asked, surprised by how much the female knew.  
  
"Yes, I have been following you. You're in the middle of the swamp - my territory - and I was going to attack you, but you seemed harmless enough so I listened to your little conversation and followed you to the swampsquid's pool. An illusion imp is the black monster that scratched your griffon. I'm sure you saw more imps, but they were fake magic imps, created by the first one. You didn't know the imp was coming until it was on top of you, did you?" She asked, casting a cold glance at Link.  
  
"Not really. It just sort of appeared out of the mist." He admitted.  
  
"Hmpf. That's what I thought. Experienced warriors know when one is coming, because they see things that aren't real, illusions that are unpleasant and brief. These always preceed the coming of an illusion imp. That's how I know it was an illusion imp you fought." She explained. iSo that's why I saw that freaky image of Zelda,/i Link thought, relieved that he wasn't going crazy. After following Link's footprints for quite a long time, the two reached the area where Zelda was. She and Naltha were standing next to Kars, who was laying upright but had a pained look on his bird face.  
  
"Huh?" Zelda was surprised to see Cyphas, then saw Link behind her. "Who are you?" She asked Cyphas, "And what happened to you, Link? I didn't know you would be gone so long, and what's with all the slime?" She asked. Link had managed to brush off some of the clinging slime, but was still mostly covered in it.  
  
"I kinda got dragged into a slime pit..." He said, embarrased. "This is Cyphas. She saved me." Link said, smiling at the teal woman. Cyphas glared at him, turning towards Zelda.  
  
"Thank you for saving my friend, Cyphas." Zelda said gratefully. She then noticed the swamp flower in Cyphas's hand.  
  
"I am impressed that you know the properties of this flower," Cyphas began, ignoring Zelda's thank-you. "You have a reliable text book. However, it must have failed to mention that the plant doesn't work on wounds from an illision imp. The imps eat this plant, so some chemicals in their bodies mix with it and when they tear the skin of a creature, some of those chemicals are left behind. When this plant touches the warped chemicals from an imp-inflicted wound, it starts a chemical reaction which is poisonous and very deadly." Cyphas tossed the flower to the ground. "The best thing to do before healing a wound like that is to sprinkle some of this on it," She said, detatching a small pouch from her belt. She walked over to the griffon and began sprinkling a brownish powder on Kars's wound. Zelda was too surprised to argue, and hoped she and Link weren't being tricked by this mysterious blue-haired woman. "There. That should have neutralized or killed all the harmful bacteria in the wound. You can heal it now, but I don't know how you intend to, since you don't seem to have any first aid gear..." Cyphas said, backing away from the griffon and eying Zelda.  
  
Zelda smiled at the doubtful woman,and walked up to Kars, positioning both hands an inch above the griffon's laceration. She concentrated her magic power, and healing magic flowed from her hands into Kars's wound. Within a matter of seconds the wound closed up, leaving no trace that it had ever been there.  
  
"What the...? How did you do that?" Cyphas momentarily lost her cold attitude as she stared in wonder at Kars's side.  
  
"Thanks, Zelda and Cyphas." Kars said, getting to his feet and walking over to his worried partner to assure her he was okay. Naltha rubbed up against him.  
  
"You had me scared, you big dumb oaf." She said quietly. Zelda turned to Cyphas.   
  
"It's a simple healing spell. If you have healing magical ability I could teach you how to do it." Zelda said. "But you have to have the magic inside you already, not have it given to you by a Great Fairy, like how Link got some of his spells."  
  
"Magic ability? What nonsense...." Cyphas muttered, folding her arms. After a few moments she looked up. "Well, looks like you two shrimps and your birds are stuck here tonight, unless of course you'de like to fly after sunset. I wouldn't reccomend it."  
  
"It's sunset? How can you tell through all that mist?" Link inquired.  
  
"Moron...I've lived in this swamp practically my whole life. Of course I can tell when the sun is setting! I suggest you two make a fire and sleep here. Belive it or not, you're in one of the safer areas of the swamp. I'll get some dry wood for you..."  
  
"Wait." Link said, stopping her. "Why are you helping us? I mean, we didn't do anything for you, so are you just being really nice or something?"  
  
"Suspicious, huh? Well, you have reason to be. The first time I saw you I just wanted to get you out of my territory, maybe kill you. But now that I've saved your life and seen this girl's strange abilities, I've decided to observe you strange people for a while. At least until you leave, anyway. While I'm watching, I might as well help out. Of course, I could still go with plan A and kill you if you want..." Cyphas said, casually shrugging. Link got a bit irritated. iThis woman saved my life, but she sure makes it sound like it would be easy to take it away. She seems to want to help, but what's with the attitude? I'm a little tired of the name-calling... /iCyphas started walking to some trees, and Link followed.  
  
"Of course I don't want you to try to kill me," Link said. Cyphas raised an eyebrow at the 'try'. "I just wondered about you a bit, that's all."  
  
"Well, let me tell you that you are very lucky to be alive," Cyphas said, drawing a well-concealed sword and cutting some dry branches off an old, mostly alive tree. "I despise Hylians, and I'm not quite sure what possessed me to save you. Maybe it's how pitifully dumb you are." She now had an armful of branches, and Link cut some more down, gathering them.  
  
"That's not very nice." Link said, looking at her and trying unsuccessfully to keep the irritation off his face and out of his voice. The two made their way back to Zelda and the griffons. "If you don't mind my asking, why do you live in Ganon's Swamp? There are more pleasant residential areas."  
  
"That's what you call it, eh? Well, isn't it obvious why I live here? Do I look like a creature that can live among normal people? I think not, and my parents had a similar opinion." She dumped her branches into a dryish dip in the ground, made when Kars had hit it. Link also put his branches down, then looked over at Zelda. The princess stepped up to the pile, using a simple version of Din's Fire to ignite it. Zelda and the griffons found relatively dry patches of ground around the fire and sat down, but Link and Cyphas remained standing.  
  
"Your looks don't bother me." Link said truthfully. "I admit I was surprised at first, but it's not like your a monster or anything; and despite your threats and namecalling, I think you're a pretty nice person. Why do you hate Hylians?"  
  
"Nice? Hah! Nice is the last thing I am, boy. You don't know anything about me. Hylians are scum, and so are zoras. All of them, scum." She said, looking a bit mad. Link began to second-guess his delcaration of her being nice.  
  
"Don't you think that's just predjudice? If one zora and one Hylian were mean to you, that doesn't mean you should hate them all-"  
  
"Why don't you shut up about things you don't understand?!" Cyphas growled, interrupting him. "My mother was a Hylian. My father was a zora. Both of them were disgusting, interbreeding with one another! No one thinks it's possible, but here I am, living proof. They thought they could just love each other and nothing bad would ever happen, but they ruined someone's life - mine!" Link was quiet, looking at Cyphas sympathetically. Zelda and the griffons also had compassionate looks on their faces, but Cyphas ignored them completely. "Those jerks couldn't live with what they had done when they saw what they had brought into the world. A doomed half-breed. For four years I grew up with my mother, but all Hylians were scared of me or thought I was a monster, so she had to keep me in the house all the time. Eventually she couldn't take it anymore and dumped me on my dad. The zoras didn't like me either, and even though the King Zora tolerated my prescence in the Zora's Domain, I was shunned and my father couldn't take it either. He took me out to this swamp and left me! I was four and a half years old, and surely would have died if some kind swamp inhabitants hadn't taken me in. You see what I mean? Hylians and zoras are scum!" Silence reigned in the camp, all eyes on the stressed-out Cyphas.  
  
"Now you know my story. I just spilled my guts to two scumbag Hylians and a couple catbirds. What's wrong with me?" Cyphas turned away, obviously emotionally unstable. Link didn't know what to do, so he tried to reassure her.   
  
"Well...a guess a lot of Hylians are scared of what they don't understand, but we're not all bad! I don't mind your looks, and I'm sure Zelda doesn't either. All you are to us is a friend." Link said. Cyphas turned towards him.  
  
"I don't care what you feel about what I am. I just told you my darkest secret, after saving your life for no reason! There's something about you that's making me act strange, and I don't like it! Who are you?!" She asked, taking a step in Link's direction.  
  
"I'm Link! Just an ordinary Hylian, that's all. I don't mean to make you act strange..." Link said, thoroughly confused.   
  
"How can you not mean to? I would never help a Hylian, but here I am, treating you like I've known you for years. You have put a spell on me! Well, now you're gonna get it!"   
  
"Cyphas, stop!" Zelda said, jumping to her feet, but it was too late. Cyphas drew her sword and began slashing at Link. He drew his own sword, wondering why the blade hadn't zapped Cyphas when she had touched it back at the swampsquid's pool. Was this woman good or bad? At the moment it seemed like bad, but the Master Sword destroyed any bad creatured who touched it and shocked any sorta bad creatured who touched it, so Link was very confused.   
  
"Hey, I don't want to fight you!" Link said, parrying Cyphas's quick blows. "You saved my life and helped us out of your own kindness, I didn't put a spell on you!"  
  
"You know what, you're right. That would be giving you way too much credit. I bet you made that Zelda girl do it! She's toast after I'm done with you." Zelda wanted to throw a fireball at Cyphas to help Link, but the two were too close and she would risk hitting her friend. Kars watched uncertainly, not knowing if he should attack the woman that helped him heal or not. Naltha was all for attacking the woman, but her and Link twisted and turned so unpredictably that the griffon didn't dare charge at them for fear she would do more damage than harm. She had seen two griffons fighting once, and when another tried to stop them, it accidentally shoved the back of one's head, making it bite very deep with its beak and almost kill the griffon it was fighting. She held back, ready to charge if the two separated.  
  
"Right, now you've gone far enough! Zelda's done nothing but be polite to you. You're being unreasonable!" Link attacked with powerful blows, throwing the swamp woman slightly off-balance when she parried. After a few parries she stumbled, falling backwards. Link looked down at her angrily. "I don't know why you think we did anything bad to you. I'm grateful for your help, so please don't make me fight you anymore!" Link sheathed his sword and offered Cyphas a hand. She grabbed his wrist and drove her strong right fist into his gut, knocking the air out of him. She then got up and shoved Link against a tree, pointing her sword at his chest.  
  
"I don't like to lose." Cyphas said, grinning but not putting any pressure on her sword.  
  
"Fine. You win, now leave me alone!" Link said, gasping but not moving. Cyphas apparently hadn't expected this answer, and stood thinking a moment.  
  
"What's wrong with me? I should kill you, but I don't want to for some reason!"  
  
"Maybe it's because there is no reason. Have you ever killed someone before?" Link asked, wondering if he should let the woman go or fight her and try to get her back to Hyrule in chains. He really didn't know anything about her, and for all he knew, she might be a killer.  
  
"No..." Cyphas said, feeling rather like a child and hating it. "I always thought I would be tough enough to destroy any Hylian or zora I saw, but now that I have the opportunity I'm getting weak...time to prove to myself I can do this!" She began pushing on the sword, making Link flinch. She looked over her shoulder at his three companions. "If you guys move at all, I'll drive this sword through him. It's razor sharp!"  
  
"Cut it out! It's wrong to kill, and you're making me mad..." Link growled, glaring at her. He wouldn't take much more of this. Just when he was about to make a move, something unexpected happened.   
  
"Cyphas, stop! Leave Link alone, you grouch!" A fairy flew up to Cyphas, yelling at her.  
  
"Kayl? Hey, long time no see!" Link said, half smiling at the fairy, half grimacing from the sword point on his chest.  
  
"Queen Kayl, why are you stopping me? This can't possibly be the Link that defeated Vamparlia. He's an idiot!"  
  
"Cyphas I'm CERTAIN that's the Link that saved us. For heaven's sake, get that sword off him!" Cyphas reluctantly lowered her sword, then sheathed it.   
  
"You know Kayl, Cyphas? Whew...I thought I was going to have to hurt you!" Link said, noticing her skeptical glare.   
  
"Ofi course/i I know her! You see? He's a moron." Cyphas said to Kayl.  
  
"Stop insulting the savior of the Swamp Fairies! Why on earth were you trying to kill him?!"  
  
"He's a Hylian in my territory... Shoot, I don't know if I could have killed him anyway," Cyphas muttered, kicking at something on the ground. "I always thought I was a warrior, but when this guy showed up I didn't feel...normal."  
  
"I know why, Cyphas. He's the first nice Hylian you've ever met. Your brain never registered the idea that there could be a nice Hylian, so you were caught between your true feelings of gladness and the dark memories of the past. Your present side really wanted to help him because he needed you and he was nice, but your past side wanted desperately to destroy him. Now leave the past behind you where it belongs and apologize to Link!" Kayl ordered.  
  
"Even if you are a Queen, I don't take orders from fairies...an apology would be pushing it..." Cyphas folded her arms and looked away stubbornly. Eventually, her feelings got the best of her. "Alright! I'm sorry, Link. I'll try to treat you nicer now. I'm tired of pretending to be a jerk, anyway." She turned towards Link and held out her hand. Link gladly shook it. Zelda let out a sigh of relief.  
  
"There, now everyone's happy," Kayl said, grinning. "Hey, I bet you're wondering what I'm doing here, huh, Link? The Swamp Faires have decided to move their home into this part of the swamp because it's far away from outside threats and one of the safer areas of the deep swamp. We were going to send word to you as soon as we got settled in, but now that you're here you can come to our new home to see where we live! Cyphas can lead you there tomorrow."  
  
"Um, me and Zelda are kind of in a hurry." Link said, looking at his fairy friend. "Oh, and Cyphas called you Queen, so you're the Queen of the Swamp Fairies now? Congratulations."  
  
"Thank you. Anyway, our home is close so it won't take long to visit us. We can just serve you breakfast or something, then speed you on your way."  
  
"All right! Wanna go, Zelda?" Link asked, turning towards the princess that was now standing a few feet to his left.  
  
"Okay, as long as it's short. We didn't see any signs of the weird sound today, so it makes me worry that maybe we'll hear it tomorrow for a long time or something. We have to find the source as soon as possible!"  
  
"Agreed." Link said, turning to Kayl. "I guess we'll see you tomorrow."  
  
"Bye, Link! We'll look forward to seeing you!" With that, Kayl flew off in the direction from which she had come. Zelda, Link and Cyphas joined the griffons by the fire.  
  
"I'm glad ithats/i over!" Kars declared, and everyone nodded.  
  
"How did you meet Kayl, Cyphas?" Link asked, very curious.  
  
"Remember when I told you I would have died if some nice swamp inhabitants didn't take me in? It was the Swamp Fairies who raised me until I was an adult. When I was full grown I explored the swamp and now I know it like the back of my hand. I was on a long trip when Vamparlia took over the Swamp Fairies, so I'm glad you were around to save them. When I got back they told me all about you, but I didn't believe you were the one they told me of when I first saw you, obviously. By the way, whats the 'weird sound'?"  
  
"It's a sound that certain people in Hyrule have been hearing. Sounds harmless, right? Well, it makes the people who hear it extremely violent and crazy. It's the reason we're out here in 'your territory'. Zelda made an enchantment that will point us toward the sound, and it led us into this swamp. We have to find it's source quick, before it makes everyone in Hyrule go crazy for who knows how long." Link explained.  
  
"Hm. Well, I haven't been hearing anything. Good luck with finding it." Cyphas said, staring into the fire.  
  
"Thanks." Link yawned. "I'm going to bed."  
  
"Good idea." Zelda agreed.  
  
"Hey, where do you sleep, Cyphas?" Link asked.  
  
"In a tree." She looked over at Link, who was staring at her. "Seriously. I just find a tree strong enough to hold me and sleep in it. It's better then the ground when you don't have a bed, and I actually kind of like it." With that, everyone in the camp went to bed. Zelda and Link leaned against the griffons in their bedrolls, and Cyphas found a strong tree. At least, she thought it was strong.  
  
"Blast it, Remorie! This time it didn't even make a sound! How am I supposed to make any progress with this piece of junk?" A woman complained to her pet.  
  
"I am sorry, Lady, but like I said, I can't predict what the shell's sound will do or if it will make an audiable sound at all. I only know how to change the frequency, not what the frequency will effect!" The water dragon shot back. iDumb dragon... /iThe woman thought broodingly.  
  
"Tomorrow we try again. We have to be close, there's only a certain amount of things this shell can do, but I think soon we'll get the right frequency. I need an army if I'm going to take over the world!"  
  
"Lady, you are aware of the side effects of the sound, aren't you? If you get the right sound and play it long enough, you could kill a lot of humans. Then you wouldn't need an army!"  
  
"You are missing the point as usual, Remorie. If they're all dead, how am I going to get the joy of killing them personally? I want an army! With the help of the Siren's Shell, I can make the largest, most powerful army ever. With this goal so close to being reached, you want me to change it? I don't think so."  
  
"Of course, Lady. You shall have your army. Perhaps we should try many frequencies in one day; that way you'd make more progress," The dragon suggested.  
  
"Easy for you to say. It's harder for me to enchant it than you know. We'll just continue as planned, so prepare to change the frequency tomorrow morning. By the way, keep researching the shell and the snakes and tell me if you find anything new. Good night." The woman stalked off to her sleeping quarters, thinking irritably of how slowly her plan was progressing. Her dragon made preparations.  
  
Section 4  
  
The Other Side  
  
Link awoke with a start as a loud noise filled his sensitive ears. He instantly sat up and looked in the direction the sound was coming from. CRRAACCKKK!  
  
"Yiiiiikes!" Cyphas yelled as the branch under her snapped and she fell ten feet to the ground, landing rather hard on her bottom. She got up, rubbing her backside, and heard Link laugh quietly. "Hey, shut up! I'm sure you wouldn't laugh if you fell from a tree! I was sure that branch was strong enough to hold me..." Link finally got himself to stop giggling.  
  
"Sorry, but you had a funny look on your face when you fell..." Cyphas glared at him. "Eh, sorry." he said again.  
  
"It's okay. It's time to get up anyway, and if we leave right now we'll be at the Fairy's Pool in about half an hour."   
  
"Right, I'll wake up Zelda..."  
  
"I'm already awake." He heard the princess say. "How could anyone sleep through that? The griffons are awake, too; so let's get going." With that, Link and Zelda packed up their gear and followed Cyphas. Even though it was morning, the swamp was still submerged in a moist fog. The group couldn't see twenty feet in front of them, but Cyphas seemed to know exactly where she was going. The five comrades walked for a few minutes, and except for the quiet squishing of the humans' feet on the swamp floor and the very loud squishing of the griffons', all was silent until Cyphas spoke.  
  
"Even though we're in a less-populated area of the swamp, we could run into monsters. You never know, so stay alert." Zelda and Link made sounds of acknowledgement. As Link walked, he found himself wondering about Ganon's Swamp. No one knew what was on the other side of it, but for all he knew, the strange sound might be coming from the other side and not from within the swamp at all. This information didn't bother him, though. He was glad he and Zelda had the chance to explore. Ever since he was a child, he had wanted to explore and see the world beyond the Kokiri Forest, but the Deku Tree would not let him leave. All the Kokiris knew he had an urge to explore, so it had come as no surprise to them when he left the forest to meet Zelda and save Hyrule. It had been cool to explore all of Hyrule, but every now and then Link found himself wanting to leave and explore other lands, beyond both Hyrule and North Hyrule. Who knew what kind of lands his planet contained? Were there worlds beyond his planet? Link always wondered about that when he looked at the stars. Whatever was out there, Link hoped he would see it one day, but knew that for now he had to stay in Hyrule, where he was needed. His thoughs were interrupted as Cyphas stopped abruptly in front of him.   
  
"What's wrong, Cy-"  
  
"Shhh! Be silent!" There was a fifteen second pause as Zelda, Link, and the two griffons watched the rigid Cyphas, who seemed to be listening for something. "Hm...alright, it's nothing. Let's keep going." Cyphas began to walk again, and the rest followed.  
  
"Hey Cyphas, I've been meaning to ask you," Link began, "Just what kind of monsters might we meet here? We can probably fight them better if we know about them."  
  
"Well, there's tons of different monsters, really. Two of the most common are swampsquids and illusion imps, obviously. The biggest one is probably the mire wurm, but I doubt we'll find one of those...let's see, there's mer-demons that swim in ponds, dead birds which look like they're dead but really aren't, then there's morphers..."  
  
"Is that anything like a shiftbat?" Link asked.  
  
"Shiftbat? What the heck's that? Never heard of it. I suppose a morpher could turn into a bat if it wanted to..." She trailed off, looking back at Link.  
  
"Can they turn into anything?" Link thought they sounded pretty dangerous.  
  
"Pretty much, but there's a few limitations. You see when they're not morphing, they're in their natural form, which looks kinda like a ghost. But when they want to kill something, their brains put hormones inot their blood which lets them morph while they're hunting. The only thing is, they have to stay the size of the thing they want to kill when they morph. For example, if we were being hunted, one could turn into a human-sized knife. If the griffons were hunted, they could be a griffon-sized knife, or whatever they want. I don't think we'll run into any, though. It's their mating season so they'll group together, and they're pretty rare so it'll be just plain bad luck if run into some."  
  
"Okay, so what's the thing we're most likely to find?"  
  
"Very inquisitive, aren't we? Oh well, it passes the time. Other than imps and squids, the most common monster is a giant leech. You think normal leeches are gross? This one drops out of trees and wraps around part of your body, then makes a wound two inches in diameter and sucks your blood. If you tear em' out you'll make the wound imuch/i bigger, so the best thing is to let them finish so they'll go away. Sounds simple, but they can suck a lot of blood and you'll be very drowsy and weak by the time it's done."  
  
"Ew..." Zelda said, shivering.  
  
"Don't worry, I won't let a leech get on you." Link promised. Zelda felt somewhat comforted, but Cyphas snickered at the cornyness. The group kept walking for about fifteen minutes, and Cyphas knew they were getting close. If they walked straight ahead they would reach the new fairy pool in just a few minutes, but there was something else straight ahead as well. Very thick mist. The companions had no choice but to walk into the mist, so Cyphas stopped them.   
  
"This is some of the worst mist that ever occurs in this swamp. When we go forward, we wont be able to see two feet in front of us. To prevent getting separated, we have to hold hands." She said it in a tone that clearly said she didn't want to hold hands, but knew they had no choice because she had no rope to link them.  
  
"Just asking...how do you find your way in this mist?" Link asked, hesitantly putting his hand in hers.   
  
"I am a tracker and I've lived here so long I would know my way around if I was blind. Don't worry about where we're going, just worry about what we might find on the way." Cyphas replied. Link nodded as Zelda sliped her hand into his, smiling shyly. He didn't notice her smile because he was focused on the mist ahead as the group moved forward once again. Naltha couldn't really hold Zelda's hand, so she layed a corner of her wing on the princess's shoulder and Kars held Naltha's tail carefully in his beak. They entered the thickest part of the mist, and as Cyphas had said, they could hardly see anything but their own bodies.   
  
"How is it possible that such thick mist exists?" Kars asked, mouth full of Naltha's tail, "I've never seen anything like this in the mountains!" He heard Cyphas's voice from far ahead, but could only see Naltha's haunches in front of him.  
  
"The swamp is always a little misty because it's so damp, but once in a while a cloud comes all the way to the ground and makes it much worse. That's why this mist is so wet, we're in a low cloud. The thick canopy of trees is keeping it in, so it's even worse here than if you were in a cloud at the top of a mountain." She explained.   
  
"Oh, I see." Kars replied, squinting. It didn't help at all. The group trudged on in ominous silence, each having to trust the one ahead for guidance. The silence was only broken occasionally by Cyphas calling out 'root' or 'pit' every time she came across one, warning those walking behind her. No one could see anything but grey, wet, ominously still mist. Link was watching carefully for signs of danger in the mist when suddenly Cyphas's hand was pulled out of his quicker than he could stop it. He couldn't see her at all.  
  
"Cyphas!" He called, trying to see.  
  
"Root." Cyphas said belatedy, getting to her feet. "Sorry about that." She grabbed Link's hand again, then stopped. "Huh? Where'd it go?"  
  
"What, the root?" Link asked.  
  
"Duh, what else?" Cyphas snapped.  
  
"Well, roots don't just move! Or...do they?" Link trailed off, wondering if maybe it wasn't a root.  
  
"It was here a moment ago and now it's gone, okay? I think - ack!" Cyphas was surprised when the 'root', which was actually a skeleton-looking monster that had tripped her, pulled her away from her companions. She wrestled with it even though she couldn't see it very well, telling Link to stay where he was. "Be careful, there might be others close by!" Cyphas warned, but her voice was cut off and Link heard a thud and a moan.  
  
"That's it! I can't just stay here!" Link declared, drawing his sword with his free hand. As he walked forward, something pounced on him and pulled him away from Zelda, who screamed. Naltha and Kars ran up and stood on either side of the princess, protecting her and trying vainly to see Cyphas and Link. The thing pinned Link, then got off him before he could see what it looked like. Its form disappeared into the mist and Link sat up, looking around. "Cyphas? Are you alright, Cyphas?!" Link called.   
  
"Yeah, other than a fat monster sitting on my head, I'm just fine!" Came the muffled reply. Link heard some wicked and fleeting laughter, but couldn't discern where it was coming from. He stumbled in the directing Cyphas's voice had come from. He reached the spot he thought she was in, but there was nothing.  
  
"Cyphas?" He called again, getting very annoyed at the mist. Something in front of him materialized from the mist. It was Cyphas. "Whew, I was getting worried." Link admitted, "Now let's go find Zelda-" Link stpped talking as Cyphas punched him in the face, sending him backwards. He fell into something, and felt arms supporting him. He turned his head and saw Zelda. "Zelda? Where's the griffons?"   
  
"Link, I'm over here! Who are you talking to?" A faint voice came from the mist to his right. The Zelda behind him put him in a chokehold, dragging him backwards. The fake Zelda's skin started turning green, and soon it looked like Link! Link knew this had to be a morpher, and so was the Cyphas he had seen. Or maybe that was the real Cyphas and she punched him because she thought he was a morpher, or...Link stopped thinking about that and pulled on the tightening arms of the morpher. He finally used his gauntlets while he could and flung the beast into the mist in front of him.   
  
"Oof!" Cyphas said as the morpher slammed into her and made her fall. "Link? Oh, good." Then the morpher started punching her. Soon the morpher transformed to look like her again, and she kicked it off, making it fly back into the mist, hitting Link.   
  
"Huh? Cyphas?" Link layed on the ground, with the fake Cyphas on top of him. The real Cyphas came into view, her mist-shrouded from dim in the mist. Unfortunately, another Cyphas came right after her.  
  
"Link, that's a morpher. I'm the real Cyphas." Both said at once. The one in front turned around, startled to find another one. Meanwhile, the Cyphas on Link started growing blades for fingers and tried to scratch him.  
  
"Link? What's going on out there?" Zelda yelled, looking between her two griffon protectors. "Oh, this is ridiculous! The first thing I'm doing when I get home is learning a spell that gets rid of mist!"   
  
Link kicked the morpher off him, accidentally sending it into the midst of the other two, who were wrestling with each other. All three fell to the ground, and when they got up, all looked the same, from what Link could see of them through the mist. They all punched at each other and Link held back, not knowing which ones to attack.   
  
"Link, what are you doing? Help me, you twit!"  
  
"Don't help her, she's a morpher! Destroy her, Link!"  
  
"They're both morhpers, Link! Use your sword!" Link just stared on as they attacked each other.  
  
"W-which one of you is the real one?" Link wondered, really wanting to take action but not willing to risk killing the real Cyphas. "What monster did you save me from?" Link asked, thinking only the real Cyphas would know.   
  
"A swampsquid!" Cyphas yelled, but then another Cyphas dragged her into the mist and Link lost track of which had said it.   
  
"Man, that's it!" Link took out the Eye of Truth, looking at the Cyphases with it. He saw two ghostlike forms attacking the real Cyphas. He shot an arrow at one's chest, but it did no good.  
  
"Link, aim for the lower left of the head! That's where-" Her sentence was cut off as a morpher punched her gut. Link quickly shot an arrow into the lower left of the morpher's head, and the creature let out a loud screetch as it died.  
  
"We must do something!" Zelda said urgently to the griffons, hearing a terrible screetch.  
  
"No, if we move it will only be harder to find Link and Cyphas. We must stay here!" Kars said sternly.  
  
The last morpher was quickly shot down by Link, who put away the Eye and rushed to Cyphas's side. She was on the ground, all cut up and bruised.   
  
"Took you long enough." She muttered.   
  
"Can you blame me? What would you have done if there were three Links?" Cyphas grinned and Link decided he'd rather not know. He took out his Arlia and began healing her. "Zelda! Stay where you are and we'll come as soon as I'm done with this."  
  
"Okay!" She said as loud as possible, so Link would know where she was. She was then silent, gazing into the mist she thought Link was behind. The griffons were still, listening and looking for Link and Cyphas. After a few silent minutes, Link appeared from the mist, walking toward them.  
  
"Good, I found you." He said, grinning widely. Then a sword was sticking through his head.  
  
"Ahhh! Link!" Zelda yelled, but then saw what she thought was Link slide lifeless from the sword and the real Link, accompanied by Cyphas, walked up to her and the griffons.  
  
"Sorry to scare you." He said. Zelda looked at him suspisciously. "Don't worry, I'm really me! My horse's name is Epona."   
  
"Okay." Zelda said, convinced. She looked over at Cyphas.   
  
"I fixed up your griffon's illusion imp scratch, can we get going now?!" She asked, irritated. Zelda nodded, and the group got into the same single-file formation as before. After a few minutes of walking, the mist began to clear up. It kept thinning until it was quite easy to see at least ten feet ahead, and the companions didn't have to hold hands anymore. They all disconnected except Zelda, still holding Link's hand. He paused in his walking and looked back at her.  
  
"It's safe to let go of me now." He informed her.   
  
"Of course," She said, blushing. She reluctantly let go of his hand. He gave her a weird look, then smiled reassuringly and continued on. The griffons and Hylians followed Cyphas, who was striding confidently through the hazy, mucky swamp, as if daring another attack. She informed them that they were not far from the Swamp Fairies.  
  
for those of you who are reading this and want pictures, I'm trying to post them on deviantart and post the link. Just go to the ending chapter of any story and click on the link at the bottom to go to the pic. If the links aren't working (and I suspect they aren't) You can see the pics by becoming a member of devinat art, then go to my homepage (my name on it is the same as here: Talonclawfange). You'll find the pics there, hopefully... 


	3. The Song of the Siren's Shell 5,6

"Here we are," Cyphas announced. The small group was standing before a pool which looked almost identical to the last Swamp Fairy pool. Everyone but Link and Cyphas stared into its depths curiously, for it was impossible to tell how deep it was due to a mystifying illusion. "Hey, vine! Get out here and take us down! Hurry up!" Cyphas yelled. Link wasn't very happy about seeing the vine again, but was getting used to it and wasn't scared or anything. The vine emerged from the middle of the pool and instatly began twisting until a magic bubble appeared, and then it made it as big as possible. It was only big enough for two people and a griffon. "Kay...Link, you and Zelda go down with Naltha. Me and Kars will come down in the next bubble." Link and Zelda stepped inot the bubble with Naltha, and the vine took them down. As they descended, Link noticed that this pool was deeper than the other one, and looked slightly bluer. They finally reached the bottom and the vine deposited them on the floor of a green room which looked a lot like the old one had, except a bit bigger. The vine went back up to the pool, to retrieve Cyphas and Kars.   
  
"So this is the fairies' main room, huh? It's pretty." Zelda commented, looking around. It was a magically lighted green room, with real vines crawling up all the walls and golden vines drawn onto half of the room's walls (the fairies were not yet done decorating). There were two exits with stone archways, and just as Zelda looked at one a fairy flew from it.   
  
"Hey, it's Link and Zelda and..." The blonde fairy looked scared as she examined Naltha.  
  
"Hi, Saysa. Good to see you," Link greeted. "I see you already know Zelda; well, this griffon's name is Naltha. Another griffon will be coming down, and his name is Kars. Ah, here he is." Just as Link said it, the vine lowered a good sized magic bubble to the floor of the room, which contained Kars and Cyphas. The bubble popped, and the vine left. Saysa sat staring at the griffons for a moment, then spoke.   
  
"Queen Kayl has already made you guys a breakfast. Just follow me, 'kay?" The group followed the tiny fairy into a larger room that had natural stone walls and ceiling. Kayl and some other fairies were sitting on oversized mushrooms around a small, flat rock. Although it was small, it made a perfect table that could fit a large number of fairies. Beside the fairy-sized rock there was a much bigger one, obviously made for humans and covered with food. Cyphas walked up to it and plopped herself down on a giant mushroom/chair.   
  
"Hi, Link! Welcome! Go ahead and sit down, and your friend, too. Sorry we don't have anything nicer that befits such a hero..."  
  
"Oh, nonsense. This is perfectly fine, and I think I actually like it more than a normal table," Link said, sitting on a soft but strong mushroom. "It's kinda cool." Zelda sat next to him, and the griffons sat next to them, but not on mushrooms  
  
"Your, ah..." Kayl looked at the creatures curiously.  
  
"Griffons," Link said.  
  
"Ah, griffons. They're welcome to eat whatever they want, too." Kayl said, smiling.  
  
"Thank you." Naltha surprised Kayl with the ability to speak. "And we're not 'Links' griffons."  
  
"Yeah, I don't own them or anything. They're not pets, they're friends." Link looked over at Kayl.  
  
"Oh, sorry about that." With that, everyone started eating breakfast. The food was pretty good, and there was lots to go around.  
  
"Hey Kayl - eh, Queen Kayl I mean - where's the rest of the fairies?" Link asked between bites of boar bacon.  
  
"They are creating and decorating a room on the other side of the main room. They'll be here when you leave, so they can all see you before you go. By the way, you don't have to call me Queen Kayl if you don't want to." Cyphas seemed a bit irrtated when she said that because she, who had been living with or near the fairies since she was four, still had to call her Queen Kayl.  
  
"It's alright. I'll call you Queen unless it bothers you." Link said.  
  
"You're so polite, Link." Zelda commented.   
  
"Uh...sure." Link said quietly, looking at his plate. He felt like he was being complimented by a mother or something. He wondered what his mother was like before she died, and felt a pang of sadness as he thought of her fate. Killed trying to save him in a terrible war started by greedy men. Link was glad that Hyrule was unified under King Daphnes now. Soon everyone was finished eating, and Link rose.  
  
"We had better get going, Zelda. We can't forget why we came here in the first place." Link turned to Kayl. "Thank you very much for your hospitality, Queen Kayl. It's been great to see you again, sorry we can't stay longer. Our mission is very serious."   
  
"It's alright, Link. Maybe you can visit another time. Or maybe we could visit you, if your castle is still to the east..?"  
  
"Yep. You can't miss it. Big and white and beautiful."   
  
"Okay. We'd better get you to the surface, then." Kayl and the fairies with her flew back to the main room, everyone following. "Can you wait here amoment?" Kayl requested, then flew into the stone archway opposite the one they had just come out of. A minute later she resturned, followed by hundreds of fairies. The flying mass combined with two griffons and three humans crowded the large room. The fairies all started yapping at once.  
  
"Liiink! Sogoodtoseeyouhow'veyoubeenwhycantyoustay-"  
  
"Quiet, sisters! He can't hear you if you all talk at once!" Kayl yelled above the din. One small red-haired fairy flew up close to Link. In her arms she held two little green puffs.  
  
"My name's Geda, and this is for you!" She gestured to the green puffs. "This is a rare and special moss that us fairies use for many things. We make special types of clothes out of it, we make soft fairy bedding out of it, and some old fairies use it for fake hair. I want you to have it, with the permission of the Queen, of course." Kayl nodded, and Geda handed Link the two green puffs. Link stared at them, wondering what he could possibly do with two small puffs of moss. He decided that she was giving it to him as a kind of souvenir, and it wasn't meant to be used for anything by him.  
  
"Uh, thanks...I mean, thank you very much, Geda." Link said, smiling and putting the puffs in his pocket. The red-haired fairy looked extremely pleased. The other fairies got a bit jealous and all started talking at once.  
  
"OhLinkperhapsyouwouldlikesomeofmymosshowaboutsomefairyleavesorfairywater-" All together, they were very loud.  
  
"No, thank you! We really must be going, and you're a bit loud!" Link said, backing away from the overwhelming group of swarming girls. Suddenly all the fairies went silent and stopped moving around, hovering in place. "Alright, you're overdoing it. I didn't mean you had to be silent." Link told them, failing to notice the malicious looks on their faces.   
  
"That sound I heard this morning!" Kayl screamed. Without warning, Queen Kayl began biting Cyphas's ear and all the others flew around madly, scratching at each other and the griffons and humans. Link pulled Zelda and Cyphas (who had taken Queen Kayl off her ear very painfully) close to him and casted Nayru's Love, protecting them from harm. Zelda casted a larger version of Nayru's Love on the griffons, so the fairies wouldn't attack them and they wouldn't feel inclined to tear the fairies apart. A few minutes passed, and the humans and griffons could do nothing but watch the fairies fight each other. The crazy attack and frenzy of fairy blood lasted for about five minutes, during which many fairies fell to the ground, still and bleeding. Finally it stopped, and all the fairies fluttered to the ground, panting and looking confused. Link and Zelda relaxed their spells (Link was glad, because he was about to run out of mana and knew that Zelda couldn't cast two of the same spell at once) and tried to help the fairies. Zelda used her power and Link used his Arlia; and between them they managed to heal all the fairies before any died from their wounds.  
  
"What just happened to us..." Queen Kayl muttered.  
  
"That sound you just heard is the reason we're in this swamp," Link explained. All the fairies were listening to him. "This sound has to be stopped because it makes people really violent to each other! It's a good thing none of you were armed, or this could have been very deadly." Link wondered why Cyphas hadn't also gone crazy because she grew up with the fairies. After all, he was raised with the Kokiri and heard the noise when they did. He then remembered that he had been with the Kokiri since just after birth and Cyphas had been dropped on the fairies when she was four. She also didn't spend all her time with the fairies because she told him she explored the swamp and wasn't usually in the cave. Link had been constantly with the Kokiris in the forest until he was eight. That explained it, then.  
  
"Thank you for healing us, I don't think we would have been quick enough to prevent deaths without your help. You've saved us again, Link, but this time you had help. Thank you too, Princess Zelda." Queen Kayl said.  
  
"Any time." The princess responded. "Thank you for a fine breakfast."   
  
"Guess it's time for you to leave again, Link. I wish you good luck with your mission." Link thanked her, then had to put his hands over his ears as every fairy strong enough to speak bade him farewell.  
  
"Goodbyebecarefulgoodluckthanksagainsafejourney-"  
  
"iQuiet!/i" Kayl ordered, somehow screaming louder than the rest of them. Link wondered if the way fairies chose queens was based on how loud they could scream.  
  
"So long, Link." Cyphas said, and Link turned to her. "I can't go with you. My place is here with the Swamp Fairies. Maybe we'll meet again someday, and sorry for being mean to you. I'll try to be nice." She shook hands with him. "Don't do anything stupid, okay?"  
  
"No problem." Link said, wondering what this woman's definition of nice was. "Take care." Cyphas nodded, and Kayl called the vine. First it took Link, Zelda, and Kars up, then came back for Naltha. Once the group of four was reunited at the top, they made preparations to leave, such as making sure their gear was secure. In a matter of minutes they were prepared, and Naltha and Kars managed to find a gap in the canopy big enough to get through. Once they were in the misty sky, Zelda renewed her spell, and told the griffons which way to fly. This time both humans stayed alert rather than sleeping, but it was difficult with such unchanging surroundings. Zelda was making sure they were flying exactly the way her enchantment was pointing when she heard a very brief high-pitched whistle coming from far away. She looked over at Link, who didn't look like he had heard anything.  
  
"We'd better be on our guard, Link. I think we might reach our goal today." Link nodded and smiled, glad that Zelda predicted they would find their goal. But even with this knowledge exciting him, he thought flying was getting very dull. No matter how much they flew, the environment stayed the same: nothing but moist, grey mist. iAt least it's not stinky anymore,/i Link thought, boredly looking around after an hour of flying. iI usually don't like unnecessary talking, but if I don't chat I'm gonna get hypnotized by this mist.../i   
  
"Hey Zelda, man or woman?" Link watched Zelda, who was flying on his left.  
  
"Link, this is hardly the time to play games." She said sternly.  
  
"But I'm bored! We've been flying for an hour doing nothing but staring ahead. This will keep us awake." Zelda sighed.  
  
"Impatient men...very well. Woman."  
  
"Over twenty or under twenty?"  
  
"Under. Link, this is even more boring than staring at mist."  
  
"Oh, c'mon! Is her hair red?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"It's Malon."  
  
"Yes." Zelda stared ahead, seemingly bored. "Man or woman." She said in a lifeless tone.  
  
"Man."  
  
"Over or under twenty."  
  
"iWay/i over." Link said, his voice heaped with exaggeration. Zelda almost giggled, but not quite.  
  
"Does he have grey hair?"  
  
"Nope, but he should." Zelda couldn't stop herself from giggling a bit.  
  
"Is he a wrinkly old brown prune?" She asked, grinning.  
  
"He will be if I ever see him again." Zelda had to laugh out loud.  
  
"It's Ganondorf!"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Heh heh! You know, I don't think he's that old. I think he's only thirty or forty. Maybe even younger."   
  
"Maybe, but you can't really tell with Gerudo. None of them look old, but I bet some are. He looks young, but who knows... " Link said, wondering about it himself. He supposed it didn't really matter, because they would never see Ganondorf again anyway. "Do you think Gerudos will go extinct because Ganondork's in the sacred realm?"  
  
"Link, that's immature. I don't know, really. I guess it would seem so."  
  
"That's kind of sad... even though they're all thieves, some are nice, like Nabooru. Hey, maybe they can make babies with Hylians, you think so?"  
  
"It's entirely possible. If zoras can, I don't see any reason why Gerudos can't. Except maybe they'll let their pride get in the way..." Zelda said, thoughtful. Link and Zelda kept talking while time drifted by like clouds. A few hours passed, and slowly the mist started thinning. They flew on for another hour, and the mist kept getting less and less unpenatrable until they could even see the tops of trees a couple hundred feet below. A few minutes ago Link had gone silent, but now he asked:  
  
"Hey Zelda, do you think we're getting close to the end of the swamp? Maybe that's why the mist is clearing up."  
  
"I think maybe we are. I've been watching the ground, and the trees are thinning, too."  
  
"Wow, cool. We're going to find out what's on the other side of Ganon's Swamp." Abruptly the last clinging tendrils and puffs of mist cleared up as the griffons flew out of them, and the two griffonriders looked down. Gone were the trees and muddy pits of the swamp. The land flattened out and dried up, then dropped suddenly into steep, rocky cliffs running down hundreds of feet. Endless rippling blue extended from the bottoms of those cliffs, reaching out as far as the eye could see. There was a beautiful ocean on the other side of Ganon's Swamp.   
  
buSection 5  
  
Blue Catbirds and Kadien's Castle/u/b  
  
"Good morning, Lady! I have exellent news! I found the frequency for the snakes!" The water-type dragon half slithered, half walked exitedly up to her mistress.  
  
"Great work, Remorie! What exactly happened?" The woman asked.  
  
"I prepared the Siren's Shell for getting its frequency changed, but instead of going to sleep I studied it. I tried casting a few spells on it, and discovered I had the power to change the frequency just like you, if I used your smaller version of the shell while casting. I took the large shell to the snake pool and played it for about one second, and every single snake in the pool swamp over to the shore I was sitting on! Of course when I stopped they went back to normal swimming, but I'm sure the magical sound made them come. Now when you use your magic to project the amplified sound across the sea, every sea snake will come to you! It'll take a while to round up them all, but you have very healthy lungs, don't you, Lady?" The woman laughed with glee.  
  
"Finally things are going my way! I'm going to blow on the shell as soon as I'm done perfecting my mutation spell. You will be handsomely rewarded when all this is over, Remorie." The dragon she was talking to nodded eagerly, grinning.  
  
"Wow, it's beautiful." Zelda said, looking down at the golden ripples reflecting the sun. Big waves crashed up against the sharp-rocked cliffs, making ocean spray drops fly like millions of white-clear crystals. Link searched the blue, cloud-strewn sky for seagulls, but didn't see any.  
  
"Sure is...but shouldn't there be some seabirds around? I don't see any animals at all!" Link asked his friend, looking at her as her golden hair flew wild in the wind.  
  
"It is kind of strange, but maybe they heard us coming and flew away. I don't know. Hey look! My enchantment is getting brighter!" Zelda stared wonderingly at her spell, and Link glanced at it, too. "This means we're getting closer. We're probably within three miles of whatever made the sound."  
  
"That's nice and dandy, but me and Kars are getting tired!" Naltha complained, looking over at her white-feathered companion.  
  
"Yeah, and I don't particularly like the idea of flying over water when I'm tired." Kars said, looking wide-eyed at the water.   
  
"Okay, I say we rest on the tops of the cliffs for a while, then fly out and find the spot the sound is coming from." Zelda said, and the two griffons turned around, swooping back towards the rocky cliffs. They had almost reached the cliffs when Link got a sudden and disturbing feeling they were being watched. He twisted sharply and looked at the sky behind and above them. At first he could barely see because of sun glare, but he shaded his eyes and gasped when he saw five flying creatures swooping at them from above.   
  
"Zelda, we have company!" He yelled to her over the rushing wind, and she looked up at them, squinting.   
  
"They look like griffons!" She replied. Naltha and Kars heard and wheeled around, in a u-turn almost sharp enough to throw their riders. Naltha and Kars watched the approaching griffons cautiously, not knowing what to expect. The griffons could be friends or foes, but by the formation they were flying in, they could be preparing for an attack. As they got closer, the two mountain griffons saw the sea griffons clearly. The one leading the five had midnight blue feathers for its bird half and sky blue fur for its cat half. It had some strange, fin-looking feathers sticking up on the back of its head, and it had a very strange tail. Instead of the traditional lion tail, it had a very furry tail, which was at least as long as its body. The other griffons looked similar, with varying shades of blue, grey, white, or black for cat and birds halfs, but each one had a different tail and each one had the same fin-looking feathers on its head. The mountain griffons thought the tails were especially strange because of their variety. They were all as long as the leader's, but one had fur only on the very end, while another had evenly spaced puffs of fur along its tail. The tail of the griffon on the right had fur running down the sides of its tail but the top and bottom was bare, and the last griffon's tail had fur only on the top and end. It was quite an odd sight.  
  
As the griffons neared, the leader let out a war cry and the formation dived towards Naltha and Kars. Naltha and Kars's riders had to cling tightly to their feathers as they dived away from the five sea griffons. As Link held onto Kars, he realized that they were diving towards the sharp-rocked cliffs. Before they hit the cliffs Kars pulled sharply up, Naltha following. The two flew quickly to the right, flying dangerously close to the razor-sharp rocks of the cliff in an attempt to lose their persuers. The group of blue griffons followed, holding formation with surprising discipline.  
  
"I've heard tales of sea griffons, but I thought they were only legend!" Naltha growled. "Can't you shoot something at them, Zelda?" Immediately the princess terminated her sound enchantment and casted a small fireball of Din's Fire at the blue griffons. Link shot an arrow at the same time, but both projectiles were skillfully dodged. While Link kept shooting arrows at the griffons, Zelda casted a larger ball of fire at them. This time when one was about to dodge it, Zelda made it explode. The closest griffon was hit and its wing caught fire.  
  
"Oweeee!" The griffon, completely losing its discipline, spiraled out of formation and into the sea. Its head surfaced moments later, and it glared irritably up at Zelda. The four remaining griffons screamed their anger and sped up, using the air currents of the sea they had grown up and practiced with very effectively to increase their velocity.  
  
"Not good!" Naltha yelled, as her and Kars tried to also speed up. They were not really used to the air currents of the sea and were rapidly tiring, so they could do nothing as the gap between them and their pursuers gradually shrunk. As the griffons got closer, however, it became harder for the quick griffons to dodge Link's arrows. One well-aimed arrow hit some feathers off the leader's wing, and he sqwaked in indignation. Link yelled at it.  
  
"Hey, leave us alone! What did we ever do to you?! I wouldn't be shooting at you if you'd go away!" Link ducked as an ice ball flew over his head. "They have ice magic! Hey, how come you guys don't have magic, Kars?" Link asked his mount.  
  
"We're a whole different species of griffon, that's why! Now be quiet and let me fly!" Kars and Naltha flew in different directions. They didn't really think it would confuse the sea griffons, but they were running out of options. Two sea griffons followed Zelda and Naltha and the other two, which included the leader, flew after Link and Kars. "Great, now we have the fastest one on our tail! Why did you have to tick them off with your arrows?" Kars spiraled upward, then plunged down toward the sea, but the experienced griffons could not be shaken, and followed closely.  
  
"If I hadn't been shooting at them, they would have reached us a long time ago! And I hope you're watching what you wish for, because I'm almost out of arrows. I only brought thirty to begin with!" Link said, firing another arrow that the lead griffon had to go out of his way to dodge. Finally Link decided to shoot a light arrow at the sea griffons, and fitted the shining arrow to his bowstring. As he let it go both griffons flew out of the arrow's way, but one hadn't closed his eyes and stopped pursuing when he was temporarily blinded by the bright light. Only the leader, biggest of them all, was left. The wagon-sized griffon flew as fast as he could, and caught up with Kars in a matter of seconds. He bit the fleeing griffons tail, and Kars yelped in pain. Link thought this griffon had just given him a nice opportunity to stop it. Without thinking he leaped off of Kars's back and landed on the lead sea griffon's.  
  
"Link, are you CRAZY?!" Kars shouted as the sea griffon fell behind, trying to shake its unwelcome rider. Kars flew around it, waiting to jump in if Link fell. Link was holding on very well, completely forgetting fear of how high he was. With one hand holding tightly to the sea griffons feathers, the other pulled his dagger out of his boot.  
  
"Hey, sea griffon! You'd better stop trying to shake me or I'll stab you!" He yelled. To his surprise, the griffon stopped pulling quick maneuvers and flew straight and level.  
  
"Get off my back, you stinking human..." The griffon growled, but made to effort to make him.   
  
"Sure, but first you have to stop trying to kill me and my friends!"   
  
"We weren't trying to kill you, you idiot!" The griffon went silent as he felt the tip of Link's dagger touch his neck lightly.  
  
"Oh yeah? What do you call swooping at us, biting Kars's poor tail, and throwing an ice ball at me?"  
  
"We're trying to capture you. It's not the same thing." The griffon argued quietly.  
  
"Well, that's bad enough. Now tell your friends to leave Zelda alone!" The griffon flew toward Zelda and Naltha, who were being closely followed by two of his comrades. Link put his dagger away so he could hold on with both hands and the lead griffon was about to reluctantly tell his griffons to let up, but then Link heard an eagle-like cry above him.  
  
"Link, look out!" Kars called, but it was a too late. Link looked up just in time to see the formerly blinded griffon hit him. The big griffon's claws left three long, deep slashes in Link's chest and threw him off the griffon. Link screamed as he fell, but Kars managed to fly fast enough to get under him before he hit the water.  
  
"Thanks, Kars..." Link said, his chest bleeding all over the griffon's feathers.  
  
"No problem, but after this you're going to wash me!" The sea griffons had once again dropped into place behind Kars, and were not going to waste time. They were quickly gaining, and Link and Kars looked back at them. "Oh man, they're going to catch us this time! Shoot an arrow or somethi-" Kars stopped talking as he heard rushing wind in front of him. He looked ahead and saw he was flying straight for Naltha. "Yikes!" He yelled, and Naltha, who had been looking at her pursuing griffons, looked in front of her and saw Kars. The two had to swerve sharply towards the cliffs to avoid hitting each other or flying into more sea griffons, and knew they couldn't stop as a rock wall rose to meet them. At the same time they spotted a cave in the rock wall, and both girffons, going way faster than they should, plunged into the cave. Within they tried to come to a quick stop, nearly tripping over each other and throwing their riders. Once they had stopped they heard an eagle's cry, but it was coming from inside the cave. They looked deeper in the cave and saw a mother and father griffon with their babies. Both looked extremely angry and began advancing toward them. The two mountain griffons were backing toward the exit but just then the leader sea griffon and his three followers blocked it off.  
  
"Uh-oh...looks like we're caught." Link said, knowing there was no way they could fight off six large, angry sea griffons. They surrendered.  
  
"Who are these miserable creatures?" Kozin, the chief and King of the sea griffons, glared down at Naltha, Kars, Link and Zelda. All had been chained. "You look like griffons from the northeast and humans, am I right?" The huge griffon demanded. He was almost as large as Cazan, who was the leader of the mountain griffons. The four captives nodded.  
  
"Sorry for trespassing, but we won't be here very long. You didn't have to make your guards attack us!" Link growled, struggling against his chains for show. He could easily break out with his gauntlets because the group had been chained hastily and nothing had been removed from him except his sword, which a griffon next to him held carelessly by the scabbard strap. He didn't break out, though, because there were still more griffons in the room than he could fight off.  
  
"Silence, fool! Do not speak unless I give you permission. You have caught me in an especially bad mood, foreigners. Sea snakes, which are the main diet of us sea griffons, have all somehow vanished from this part of the shore. We must fly farther to find them, and to make up for it we've had to feed on sea gulls. iSea gulls!/i I tell you when I find the source of this mischief it will be dealt with harshly; and until then, all tresspassers will be incarcerated!" Kozin frowned at the blood dripping from Link's slashes onto his clean floor.  
  
"We're here to investigate something strange, and maybe it has something to do with your missing snakes," Link suggested, but the griffon next to him silenced him by hitting him to the ground with a large paw. It didn't really hurt, so Link sat up and kept talking. "As soon as we stop the source of a weird sound we've been hearing, it may bring back your snakes, who knows?" Link looked at the griffon next to him, which seemed like it was about to strike him again. Link kicked the Master Sword hanging from its beak so it bumped into the creature's chest, and the griffon received a brief but painful shock from the sword's magic and dropped it, backing away from Link.  
  
"How dare you shock my servant!" The King seemed about to get mad, but then thought about what Link had been saying.   
  
"You seriously think you can stop this problem and end the starvation of my people?" Kozin asked, large green eyes fixed on Link, who was still seated quiet comfortably on the floor. "No promises, but if I find the source of your plight, I'll do my best to stop it so you can have your snakes back." Link thought for a moment. "But I'll only do it if you let us go!" Kozin looked thoughtful as he turned the request over in his mind.   
  
"Sounds fair enough, but I need some insurance. We'll keep your female griffon here with us until you fix our problem. If you don't, you're simply trespassers and will face my wrath when you return! Guards, release all but the red female." Link looked like he was about to protest, but then decided that this was probably the best deal they were going to get. He was surprised they had struck a deal at all after he zapped the guard griffon. Other guard griffons unlocked Zelda and Kars, and as one came over to him he just broke out of his chains, scaring the creature. He laughed good-naturedly and picked up the Master Sword, re-equipping it.  
  
"You'd better not hurt Naltha while we're gone," Link said, turning and walking toward the exit with Zelda and Kars beside him. Kozin laughed.  
  
"Is that a threat, human? You're pretty funny. Don't worry, I wont hurt her unless you give me a reason to, such as threatening me again." Link glanced irritably back at the haughty griffon, but stopped himself before he did anything dumb. Kozin grinned. "By the way, there is a dangerous undersea insect you might want to watch out for. They are usually under control because of the sea snakes, but seeing as how they're all gone, you might run into some. The human hand-sized insects are called cidids and swim quite quickly. They sting their prey to permanently paralyze it, but they prey on creatures much smaller then humans; so if the poison effects you at all, it will probably only paralyze you for a few minutes." Link nodded his thanks for the warning, then left the large cave with his friends. Kars, though tired, had enough energy to fly out of the cave and to the top of the cliffs with Zelda and Link on him. The three rested there until Kars felt he could fly normally again, and Zelda healed Link's wounds. Then Zelda renewed her sound spell and Kars carried the two Hylians over the water.  
  
"Hey Zelda, do you have a spell for breathing underwater?" Link asked, putting on his zora tunic. Link wondered how the tunic let him breathe underwater, but had forgotten to ask the zoras when he got it.  
  
"It doesn't let me breathe underwater, but it does create a shield around me that gives me air for a while. I've never really tested it, though, so I don't know how long I can maintain it." Her enchantment began flashing, and after Kars had flown a few hundred feet out to sea, the needle of it started angling downward. After a short while it was pointing directly down and Kars stopped flying forward, circling slowly over the water.   
  
"Well, here's where we go for a swim." Zelda said, then terminated her spell and transformed into Sheik. "The source of the sound should be directly below us."  
  
"Alright! Let's go!" Link said, happily jumping off the griffon (they were only twenty-five feet above the water, so it wasn't very scary). Sheik followed, chanting a spell as she fell. Just before she hit the water blue magic surrounded her, shining dully. Link put on his iron boots and Sheik held onto him as they both sunk steadily. Link looked down and realized they were sinking towards a very pointy-looking coral tower. He swam far to the side of it, and Sheik and Link couldn't belive what they saw as they sank past it. Before them stood a grand castle constructed completely of rigid coral. The coral was maily white but had rainbow patterns dancing up and down it as the surface of the sea shifted the light. As Link and the princess sank deeper, they saw how huge the castle was. It wasn't nearly as big as the great Hyrule Castle, but still pretty big for an undersea structure. Link and Sheik knew instinctively that the sound had to be coming from inside the strange castle, so as soon as they hit the sea floor Link began walking up to it.  
  
The two Hylians searched for an entrance but to their surprise, they could not find a door. The first time they looked at the shimmering castle it had seemed porous and full of openings, but apon closer examination they found only shallow depressions. Finally Link spotted a suspicious-looking piece of coral that was jutting out from the castle. He walked over to it, moving slowly from water resistance, iron boots, and pulling Sheik (who would have floated if she wasn't hanging on). They reached the protrusion, which was at about the level of their heads, and Link looked under it. He discovered that the bottom was an opening that led up and into the castle, so he took off the iron boots and the two Hylians entered. Sheik's spell began blinking, and she gave Link an urgent look. He swam quickly through the bluish, poorly-lit cave the entrance had lead them to, until it enventually opened up into a fair-sized room which was half filled with water. The pair reached the surface and climbed out of the water.  
  
"Wow, that was cool!" Link exclaimed, having never seen anything so beautiful underwater. He also thought it was cool that they in a coral castle filled with air hundreds of feet below a sea he had never seen.  
  
"Good thing we found this room..." Sheik said as her spell wore off. "Whew, I don't know if I can do that again for a while, so I kinda hope we can stay here long and let my water magic regenerate." Link looked over her and saw her remove her sheikah hat/bandage thing. Now her face and hair looked like Zelda, but she was still wearing Sheik clothes and red eyes.  
  
"Hey, that looks cool." Link comented, thinking her hair out looked better than the mummyish hat covering her face.  
  
"I just hope my hair doesn't get in the way," She muttered, walking up behind Link. "Lead the way."  
  
"Uh, of course." Link said, smiling and drawing his sword.  
  
"Nope. Put that away." Zelda ordered.  
  
"What? But we might run into a monster or something..."  
  
"Like I told you, we don't know if the source of the sound is meaning to do creatures harm. What if it's just a mermaid, playing a wierd sound and unaware of the havoc it's causing?"  
  
"I'd love to have your optimistic attitude, Zelda, but I really don't feel like it's safe down here." Link said, not sheathing his sword.  
  
"So you can just take it out if we see any trouble. I don't want to walk in on a mermaid and scare the wits out of her with a drawn blade! This castle might have no hostile inhabitants at all." Link grimaced and put the sword away.  
  
"Whatever you say, princess...but I don't think mermaids even exist."  
  
"A month or two ago you didn't know griffons existed, either." She pointed out.  
  
"Yeah, you're right. Well, I hope you're right about the sound, too. Let's go." Link started down the hall in front of them, Sheik following. The hall was easily big enough for the two of them to walk side by side. The entire thing, like the rest of the castle, was made of whitish coral. The strange thing was how the hall and the room they had just left were lit. Weird, barnacle-like creatures were clinging to the ceiling, and each one gave off a bright, white glow. Link and Sheik had only been walking a few minutes, when both heard a peculiar clicking sound. It was coming from around the bend in the tunnel in front of them, and seemed to be drawing nearer.  
  
"Now can I draw my sword?" Link asked Sheik.   
  
"No," She said, eyes on the curve. Suddenly scores of hand-sized red and yellow insects came around the bend, each clicking and shuddering in a strange, threatening sort of way. "Okay, inow/i you can!" She said, thinking of a spell she could use. At first she thought of an ice spell, but remembered that the magic she called apon for chanting spells was still regenerating. She instead told Link to cast Nayru's Love on himself so she could use the dome version of Din's Fire, which a Great Fairy gave to her and used a different sort of mana then chanting spells. As soon as Link was enveloped by blue protective magic, Zelda casted the spell, and became surrounded by fire. The fire expanded outward in a dome-like shape, incinerating all the insects. When the magic and insects were gone, Link took off Nayru's Love and the two Hylians moved on. They followed the path for a while, about twenty minutes, and just as they began to grow anxious the path in front of them split into two ways.   
  
"Which way, princess?" Link asked, looking back at her.   
  
"I hate it when you call me that. I don't know, which way do your instincts tell you to go?"  
  
"I don't know if we should follow my instincts. They don't always lead me to safe paths, in fact it might lead us to an evil monster. But then again, in this case they might lead the right way. I think we should choose the iright/i path." Link said, grinning at Sheik. She frowned at the lame pun. The two of them were about to go right when Link stopped, looking closer at the left path. It was very long, and he thought he could see something moving far down it. The thing seemed to be getting closer, and Link stared in wonder as a young sea dragon approached them. When it was still about a fifty yards away, it stopped.  
  
"So you made it past the cidids, eh? Well you can be sure that you'll never escape Lady Kadien's Castle alive!" The relatively small dragon roared. It was a bit bigger than Taig, but shaped more like a sleek, long, snake.  
  
"Zelda, I think the inhabitants of this castle are hostile!" Link declared, drawing the Master Sword. At the sight of the sword, the dragon turned and ran off. "Wait, who's Kadien? We just want to talk to her!" Link called after the fleeing beast.  
  
"And hack her to pieces, if I left it up to iyou/i." Zelda said, looking at Link and his sword meaningfully.  
  
"Hey, the dragon just made it very plain that it means us harm. Should we follow it?" He asked, not wanting to do anything the princess wouldn't like.  
  
"Yes, let's hurry!" Link and Zelda ran down the tunnel the dragon had left. Zelda was normally slower than Link because of her dress, but with ninja-like sheikah clothes on, she ran faster than him. They soon entered a rather large coral room, with rainbow-white walls that had strange, sharp-looking formations growing out of them. They stopped when they saw the young, serpent-like water dragon before them.  
  
"Hah, humans are so easy to lead into traps! Mark the words of Remorie, you will lose your lives in this room!" A strong metal gate slammed behind the Hylians, and they turned to face the dragon. There was a passage behind the beast, and the female dragon moved out of the way as three monsters emerged from the passage. They looked vaguely like sea snakes, but had many differences. The biggest one, black and white striped, had a head as large as Link, and two long horns coming from the back of its skull. It looked extremely ill-tempered, and so did its two companions. The other two black and yellow snakes were much smaller, having heads the size of a human head, but were still obviously much bigger and meaner then a normal sea snake. One even had sharp, needle-looking spikes running down its spine. "If you know anything about sea snakes," Remorie said boastfully, "You know they are the most poisonous snakes in the world, and their venom can probably kill a human your size in less than a minute. These ones have been mutated into ferocious beasts, see if you can live through an encounter with them!" The dragon scampered into the tunnel the snakes had come from, disappearing around a bend.  
  
"Swell. Zelda, I hope you don't think we're going to get through this without a fight anymore." Link said, pointing his sword at the advancing snakes.  
  
"Nope! Let's give it to 'em!" Sheik took out her fighting chain, and began whipping at the nearest snake, which hissed and recoiled. The largest one was not intimidated and lunged forward, only to recieve a large slash on his snout from the Master Sword. Hissing, it reared up and prepared to strike at Link again. Meanwhile both smaller snakes were slithering toward Sheik, who was actually doing quite a good job of whipping them with her chain whenever they got close. Despite Sheik's skills, the snakes were relentless, and seemed to be trying to wear her out. The large snake struck at Link ferociously, and he rolled away from Sheik as he dodged the huge fangs of the black and white striped beast. He jumped to his feet and gave the snake another large slash on its nose, making it hiss in rage. The snake whipped its huge tail around behind Link and whacked him in the back of the head, throwing him to the ground and stunning him. Luckily, he recovered in time to roll out of the way of another strike. The snake growled as its teeth hit hard coral instead of flesh,and it glared at Link, who had jumped to his feet. Link took a swing at the monster's face, but the snake dodged. Link risked a glance over at Sheik, who looked a little tired but unwounded.  
  
That split second glance was a big mistake. The biggest mutated sea snake lunged at Link and pinned him to the ground with its huge weight. It began trying to coil around him, but Link put slashes in the coils on top of him, making the snake jump off. Giving up the constriction idea, it wrapped its tail around his boot and threw him into a nearby wall. This wouldn't have been so bad except the snake threw him into a particulary sharp coral formation, and it put a large slash in the warrior's chest as he collided with it. Link groaned as he fell to the ground, getting slowly to his feet.  
  
"Rotten snake!" Link yelled, getting out his bow and aiming a fire arrow at the monster's face. He paused as he heard Sheik scream. Link looked over at her and discovered she was being crushed in the coils of both of the smaller sea snakes. iSheesh, I didn't think sea snakes even killed their prey by constriction! Oh well, it's not like they're normal sea snakes./i Link re-aimed his arrow for one of the smaller snakes and let it go. The snake let out a horrible shriek as its scaley skin was pierced and burned by the arrow, and it got off the princess, dying. The other one was a bit scared and loosened its hold a bit, but didn't let go. Link was about to kill the other small snake but the big one slithered in front of him, striking at his legs. Link jumped back and put his bow away, drawing the Master Sword once again. Link crouched and sent magic energy into his sword, powering it up for the spin attack. The giant snake lunged for his head, but just as it was about to hit him, Link released the attack. The snake had put itself in a very bad position, and the attack severed its head.  
  
Link wiped the sweat off his forehead and vaulted over the snake, towards Sheik. The snake on her was scared of Link on leaped off her, getting as far away from the warrior as possible.  
  
"D-don't kill meee!" It pleaded, its flat, reptillian head swaying back and forth in fear. Link hesitated, wanting to kill the beast that had tried to crush his friend, but not wanting to destroy an animal begging for its life.  
  
"I can't believe it!" Link and Sheik (who had gotten to her feet) heard a familiar voice in the passage that had not been blocked. They looked over at it and saw Remorie, clutching a very small, shiney and spikey shell. "You guys aren't dead yet? You must be real warriors!" The water dragon glared at the last remaining sea snake. "Bite them, you useless aquatic minion!"  
  
"But if I try, that green guy's gonna kill me!" The snake screetched, shivering in fear. Link took a step toward the dragon, forgetting the snake.  
  
"Hey, dragon, whoever Kadien is, I have a feeling we want to talk to her. Where is she?" He asked, glaring at her menacingly.  
  
"Hmpf! Like I'd tell a low-class creature like you where Lady Kadien is! Hm, green guy? You must be a Kokiri, yes?" Link watched curiously as the dragon chanted and some colorless, wavy magic left her hand and entered the small shell in her other hand. She then raised the pretty thing to her scaley lips and blew.  
  
"Aaahhh!" Link yelled, falling to his knees and covering his pointy ears. "Zelda, get away from me! It's the sound..." Sheik couldn't hear a thing but knew Link's nice personality was about to fly out the window. She backed up, only to find herself pressed against the steel door closing off the exit. She wished there really was a window. Link stopped screaming and got up, looking insanely at her.  
  
"No, Link! Use your rage against the dragon, not me, ack!" Sheik jumped aside as Link put away his sword and threw a dagger at the spot she had been standing in. It slammed against the metal door with a clang, then fell to the floor. "Link, stop! Control yourself!" But Link was in an evil trance because of the mini Siren's Shell, and could not hear his friend. He threw a punch at her, but the quick girl dodged. Sheik looked into Link's eyes, but could not find Link there. Suddenly he closed his eyes and put a hand on the side of his head, apparently in great pain. He then yelled and jumped at the princess. She was surprised and didn't jump out of the way in time to avoid his body throwing hers to the ground and pinning her. "No, Link! No, no, no!" She was silenced as the crazed Link put a hand over her mouth, grinning at her. She was beyond terrified, but had the presence of mind to look over at Remorie, who was still playing the small shell. iIf I can only stop that dragon.../i  
  
As Link put a strong hand on her neck, Sheik shot a fireball at Remorie. The flaming sphere hit the dragon's paws, forcing her to drop the shell. Link blinked a few times, then looked down at the frightened princess. Gasping in horror, he got off her and helped her to her feet.  
  
"Zelda, I'm so sorry..." Link turned away from her, staring at the ground in shame.  
  
"It's okay, Link...you couldn't control yourself..." Sheik said, temporarily unable to shake the fear she had felt when she had looked into his crazy, bloodlusting eyes. It just wasn't Link! She wondered if would ever be able to forget those Linkless eyes. She put a hand on her friend's shoulder, and he turned towards her. She looked into his blue, sorrowful eyes, just to reassure herself that her friend was back, freed formt he spell. But he looked terribly sad. "Hey, it's really alright. You didn't hurt me," She said, trying to smile. The corners of Link's mouth twitched, but he couldn't bring himself to smile after what had almost done.  
  
"Accursed humans!" Remorie growled, picking up her shell and running away again. This time a thick metal door slamed behind her, sealed with a large lock. Link and Sheik had forgotten about the last sea snake, which chose that moment to strike. Both Hylians screamed as the beast bit Link's shoulder, long teeth digging deep. Link's dagger happened to be laying next to Sheik's feet, and she quickly grabbed it and stuck it into the snake's neck. It fell to the ground, lifeless.  
  
"Wow, I've never stabbed anything in the neck before," Sheik said, not liking the feeling it gave her. She caught Link as he fell forward, half-conscious from the quick-spreading venom. Sheik layed him on the ground, trying to work up some magic to heal him. She hadn't regenerated much chanting magic yet, and knew that if she used some now it would take a very long time to regenerate; but didn't care at all. She chanted an anti-venom spell, and used what little magic she had to get rid of all the deadly sea snake poison.   
  
"Thank you..." Link said, weakly getting to his feet. He managed to smile at her, and both felt a wave of relief that the other was okay. Link got out his Arlia and used it on his chest and shoulder wounds. It didn't heal all of either wound, but reduced the pain greatly and stopped most of the bleeding by making the wounds smaller. Link's attention was drawn to the center of the room as a small chest magically appeared. He walked over to it and kicked it open, revealing a small key. He picked it up and looked over at Sheik. "I would expect this type of thing from a temple or dungeon in Hyrule, but in a coral castle? It seems too simple..." He said, looking over at the lock on the steel door blocking thier way forward. "It could be a trap." Sheik brushed her long, golden hair out of her face, also looking at the large lock.  
  
"I don't have any spells I can use right now that will break that lock. Do you think you can break it with any of your weapons?" She followed Link as they both walked over to the door. Link got out the Megaton Hammer, but could not break the door with it. He then tried three bombs, but even the combined explosion didn't put a dent in the reinforced steel. Link then tried to break it with the power of the Golden Gauntlets, but even that proved useless.  
  
"I guess we have no choice but to try the key," Link said, taking it out and looking at Sheik for approval. She nodded, and Link put the key into the lock. It fit perfectly and he turned it. The Hylians heard a click, but the lock did not open. Instead two holes in the coral ceiling above the Hylians opened up, and purplish gas came pouring out. Link put the key away and instincively held his breath, but Sheik accidentally breathed some as she tried to hold hers. She coughed hard a few times, nearly falling over. She then choked on the fumes and did fall over, unconscious. iZelda! I have to get us out of here before this stuff kills her!/i Link glanced around urgently, looking for any way to escape. The way back was blocked by a steel door, and the way forward was blocked with a steel door with a lock on it. There were no other ways out. Link, struggling to hold his breath, looked up at the holes spewing gas. They were about the size of his bombs, so he got out two unlit bombs and shoved them into the holes. This stopped more gas from entering the room, but there was still the problem of the gas inside the room. Link searched the walls, but found no holes. Evetually he had to breathe, and coughed as he inhaled the foul-smelling purple fumes. He stumbled forward as his whole body was racked by a violent cough, and he hit a coral wall. Surprisingly, the wall gave a little under his weight. He quickly got out a lit bomb and placed it next to the wall.   
  
Link choked on the purple gas and fell backwards, his world going black.  
  
"Stupid human! He just blew a hole in my coral fortress! Water is leaking in now..." The angry wonam looked over at the water dragon beside her. "I have no choice but to open the door or he could blow another hole, or my purple gas could go into the hole he blew and contaminate the newly grown coral. It's better if the purple gas goes out the door than through the hole. Do you know how long it takes to grow coral walls?" She asked her serpentine servant.  
  
"Um, no." Remorie said, staring into the magical, shimmering, floating sphere of water that showed the purple fume-filled room. It was like a crystal ball, except water.  
  
"It will take me at least twenty minutes to repair the damage he just did in three seconds!" The woman growled, opening the reinforced steel doors magically and watching the purple gas float out of them and diffuse in the open air.  
  
"But Lady, if you had kept the gas in there for a few minutes, the intruders would die!" The dragon pointed out.  
  
"Yes, and so would my new coral. I love my castle, Remorie. And let's not forget that there's more than one way to skin a cat." The woman said, making the magic orb of water dissappear. "Come, Remorie. It's time to give our little visitors a good washing."  
  
buSection 6  
  
The Siren's Magic/u/b  
  
Link opened his eyes, and the ceiling came in to focus very slowly. He managed to sit up, but his head felt like a cow had been dropped on it. He looked around at his surroundings, finding that nothing had changed. There was three snake corpses and an opened chest...wait, something ihad/i changed! The steel door had been opened. There was also a large hole in the wall in front of him, through which water was leaking slowly. Link stood up and quickly found Sheik, walking unsteadily over to her.  
  
"Zelda, are you okay? Hey, Zelda!" The princess didn't move and Link shook her shoulder a bit. She didn't wake up, but Link knew that at least she was breathing. She seemed to be fine, so he sat next to her and waited for her to wake up. She woke in about five minutes, and Link helped her sit up. "How do you feel?" He asked her.  
  
"My head and lungs hurt, but I'm alright. We have to keep going." The two of them stood up. Sheik looked dizzy at first, but quickly regained her composure. Link then drew his sword and started walking towards the exit. "Hold on, Link. You're forgetting your dagger," Sheik said, gesturing towards one of the dead snakes. Link retrieved his small weapon from the beast's neck, cleaned it, and stuck it in his belt. The Hylians then left, going down the passageway that had been opened. It looked pretty much the same as the other tunnels they had been traveling in, but was slightly bigger. As they walked Link looked closely at the light-emitting barnicles on the ceiling, wondering if the light was natural of if they had been enchanted. He also thought about Sheik and her magic.   
  
"Zelda, just how long do you think it'll take to get back all your magic?" He asked, keeping his eyes straight ahead on the tunnel.  
  
"All of it? I'd say an hour or so. It's too bad the water breathing spell isn't one a Great Fairy gave to me, because if it was I could use it right now. You see there's two types of magic; the kind you have to chant and requires magic from within, and the kind you can cast without talking, which you need magic from a Great Fairy to cast. Those usually require gestures of your hands, though."  
  
"Okay." Link said, not sure what she was talking about but knowing that she probably knew a lot more about magic than anyone else he knew. Except perhaps Feelock or Sahoriel, but they obviously weren't around. Sheik and Link kept walking for about twenty minutes, but nothing happened and the tunnel remained the same: a twisting, rainbowy-white coral passage lit by glowing barnicles. Eventually the passage in front of them opened up into a large room. The room was big enough that just barnicles on the ceiling was not enough, and there was some on the walls, too. There was a huge pool in the middle of the room, and it, too, had barnicles in it. Although the pool was dim because the shellfish didn't give off a whole lot of light, Link could see that there were creatures swimming in it. They seemed to be un-mutated sea snakes. "Well, I don't see a way to get around this..." Link said, stepping up to the edge of the pool. A few sea snakes glanced up at him, but none looked like they were going to attack him.  
  
"I don't have any levitation spells except the kind I chant for. I have a little bit of magic now, probably enough to get us over, but then how will we get back?" Sheik pondered.  
  
"Hey, I know! I ido/i have a way to get over! I'll just shoot some ice arrows in there and make us a bridge across." Link said, putting away his sword and getting out his bow. Suddenly, without Link shooting an arrow into it, the whole pool froze over. "What the..? Wierd pool!" Link exclaimed. He then noticed two figures standing on the other side of the pool. He squinted but the room was dimly lit, and the reflecting ripples of the water under the ice distorted the outlines of the two figures. All Link could be sure of was that one stood on two legs and the other four. Link put away his bow and was about to dash over the lake to the two figures, which he guessed must be Remorie and Kadien, when he heard the rushing of a lot of water.  
  
"Hey, who are those two on the other side of the pool?" Sheik asked, also trying vainly to see them. "I don't like the sound of that water..." She muttered, eyes on the two creatures on the other side of the frozen pool of sea snakes. Abruptly the two figures were covered in watery-looking shields. Behind them Sheik saw water. A ilot/i of water. A lot of water speeding towards her and Link. "Run, Link!" Sheik said, and dashed back the way they had come.  
  
"Run?" Link then saw the water, and ran after his friend. "Zelda, is it such a good idea to run this way? When we were in that one room the way forward was opened, but the way back was still sealed!" Sheik frowned, thinking of that.  
  
"You're right...what are we going to do?"   
  
"Don't you have a really powerful explosion spell?" He asked, straining to keep up with her.  
  
"Yes, but I need full mana to use it! Oh no, we're going to be trapped!" The two Hylians could not outrun the water, and it reached them with a rushing sound louder than any water Link had ever heard. They were swept up in the current, being stirred around in the rapids as they sped towards the room they had left. It had taken them twenty minutes to walk to the pool, but it only took about three minutes for the rushing water to get them back there. The whole time they were tossed in the waves, which were much too strong to swim against. Fortunately neither was injured before they reached the room with the snake corpses. The room that was sealed. The water pushed them into the room at the same time, and Link observed that Sheik was headed straight for a sharp formation sticking out of the wall. He managed to swim just hard enough to get over to her and grab her, pulling her away from the sharp protrusion. The two were then pressed up against the steel door blocking their way out.  
  
"Now what?" Link asked, knowing very well that neither of them had a plan. The water level was steadily rising, and the current was still to strong to let them swim out. Link still had his zora tunic on and knew he could help Zelda breathe underwater with it, but didn't relish the idea of giving her mouth-to-mouth underwater. He looked around once again for a way out, and suddenly got a very good idea. Link got out his bow and hit the steel door with an ice arrow. The whole thing froze over, even the portion beneath the water level. He then got out the Megaton Hammer, and straining to keep his balance in the rushing water, hit the frozen door with all his might. The gauntlets helped a great deal, and the door shattered. Immediately the water carried Sheik and Link out the door, pushing them toward the opening they had first enterred the castle through. They reached it very quickly, and Sheik managed to get her head above water long enough to chant her spell for breathing underwater. She knew she couldn't maintain it for long, but had no choice.   
  
The water shoved the two Hylians out into the open ocean, as if the castle itself had spit them out. They swam upwards, but since Link was the stronger swimmer Sheik held onto him. Without warning, Sheik's enchantment disappeared. Not good! Link thought, looking up and seeing that they were still far from the surface. He swam as fast as he could, but knew that if he didn't do something, the princess would drown. He swam for a little while longer, and just when Sheik was about to pass out, he pulled her close to him and put his lips on hers, giving her some air. She looked startled but kept swimming, and after a few moments and another couple of long mouth-to-mouth breaths, they finally reached the top. Sheik breathed gratefully, and exhausted, she stared over at Link.  
  
"Thanks," She said, smiling at him.  
  
"You're welcome..." He said, turning away to hide his blushing. iIt wasn't a kiss or anything,/i he reasoned, irritated at his own feelings. iI had to do it to save her life, that's all.../iKars had been flying overhead and spotted the two Hylians, then dove down and hovered over them.  
  
"Boy, do you two look washed up! Did you get eaten by a whale or something?" He picked them up in his large bird claws, careful not to scratch them or be to rough, and flew over to the cliffs above the sea. He put them down and landed next to them. "So, did you stop the sound and get the sea snakes back?" The griffon inquired.  
  
"No, we didn't manage to do either." Sheik said, sounding dissappointed.  
  
"I'm going back down there. Just let me rest a minute," Link said, sitting on the ground. Sheik sat next to him. Link looked over at her, and discovered she was staring at his face. "What..," he asked, not liking the look on her face.  
  
"Oh, nothing." She said mischeviously. Link frowned and looked at the ground, resting his head on his hands.  
  
"I think that person we saw standing on the other side of the lake was Kadien. She must be the one behind the sound we've been hearing, and that annoying dragon must be her servant. I think if I talk with and maybe defeat that woman we can rest assure that we'll never hear the sound again. If I defeat her, I think I'll have a chance to destroy her shell." Link said, turning his gaze the the beautiful blue ocean. He knew now that the beauty was very deceptive.  
  
"Nicely done, Lady Kadien! You are truley powerful!" Remorie complimented, watching their water shields fade and the tidal wave spell water dissapear. The ice on the sea snake pool then disappeared, and the snakes resumed their swimming as if nothing had happened.  
  
"Thank you, Remorie, but without your research of the Siren's Shell and the mini shell I wouldn't have drawn them here so I could have fun getting rid of them in the first place. I do hope they drowned..."  
  
"Most likely, Lady. However I think maybe it's a bad idea to underestimate them, because they idid/i kill all of your newly mutated sea snakes and blow a small hole in your castle..."  
  
"Well, who cares. If they come back I will deal with them myself, and if they don't, I'll blow on the shell when I'm done with the wall. Come, we will go repair the wall. You know, after that I am in such a good mood I think I'm going to sing!"  
  
"Your voice is beautiful, Lady. Shall we?" The two went to repair the wall. 


	4. The Song of the Siren's Shell 7

  
  
"And what about me? You expect me to stay up here, don't you?" Sheik asked, irritated that Link would once again have all the fun.  
  
"There's no choice. Your spell ran out and I don't have two zora tunics. Even if I did, it wouldn't work for you. The tunics are made for men, and unless they fit you perfectly and are in good condition, they don't work. Trust me, I tried to put it on when I was a kid."  
  
"Alright. But next time you go on an adventure, I want to come!" She said, knowing that her father probably wouldn't let her go on Link's next adventure but wanting to go anyway. Link rested for about fifteen minutes, then asked Kars to carry him over the ocean again. Kars took him to the spot in the water he had pulled them out of, and Link jumped in, donning his iron boots again. He sunk to the bottom and looked at the coral castle before him, wondering if there were any ways into the castle other than the last one he had used. He saw that entrance in front of him, looking deceptively inviting. Link searched the front of the castle, but found no other enctrance. Just as he was about to go into the first one, a spot above and to the left caught his eye. It was a scattering of holes, but none were large enough to fit through. However, they seemed to be connected on the inside, as if they were really a web-like covering for a larger hole. Link took off the boots and swam over to the holes. He grabbed the coral stretched over the larger opening and pulled it off. He found that the hole was large enough for him to go into, so he entered it. After a few feet of half-crouching, half-walking through the small tunnel, it angled upward and was no longer filled with water. Link kept going, walking down the tunnel in a straight path, though there were many branching tunnels going off from the main one. For five minutes he walked, then he heard something. It was like nothing he had ever heard before.  
  
The thing it reminded him most of was the last time he was in the Ethereal Forest and had heard Thesaya's singing, but this was much more beautiful. It sounded like birds chirping, water dripping, music playing...all the most pleasant things Link had ever heard. It was a very strange and lovely melody coming from the mouth of a woman. Link then realized what he was doing. He was being hypnotized by the song! He resisted, but the song was so beautiful...how could he want to resist such a thing? He shook his head to clear it. iThis Kadien must be a siren. I've heard of thier songs from the Know-It-All Brothers. They sing beautifully until a man comes to them, and then they kill him. I can't let myself get trapped in that beautiful song...so beautiful.../iLink closed his eyes, just listening to the song. Then it stopped.  
  
"There, that ought to do it, Remorie." A woman's voice replaced the singing. "Now let's go back to my room so I can play the Siren's Shell. The voice was coming through the wall of coral to Link's right, and he knew that the sea dragon and her master must be there. He could faintly heard their footsteps through the wall, and followed them in his small tunnel. The footsteps were very quiet, and it would have been much harder for Link to track them if the woman and her pet dragon hadn't been talking. They talked about the Siren's Shell, and how they had it on the frequency that would bring sea snakes to them. They also mentioned that all normal Hylians would be able to hear it, so many would be killed before Lady Kadien had the pleasure of killing them. iSo they do mean to hurt us with that magical sound. The Siren's Shell, the big version, must make the sound that can be heard in Hyrule. I've got to stop them!/i Link thought urgently. He followed the footsteps and talking for about half an hour, losing them a couple times but always finding them again.   
  
"Ah, Remorie...finally my dream is going to come true. I'll conquer the kingdom next to us, and then the world...I'm so happy!" Then Link lost the voices. He strained his ears and walked around a bit, but could not find them. iNot good! I have to find them before they blow on that shell, or Hyrule's in big trouble!/i Link was running (as well as he could with the low ceiling) through the tunnel when he heard the singing again. It immediately invaded his head, giving him the feeling that he was floating on air. He walked down a branch in the tunnel that the lovely sound seemed to be coming from, and followed it to its end. He found that the passage angled downward and dropped into a large room, but he wasn't paying attention to that. The singing was very loud, and he found that he couldn't resist listening to it. Fortunately, it stopped again. "Here goes, Remorie. After I play this of about ten minutes every sea snake within a twenty mile radius will be swimming toward us!" Link looked down on the room below him and saw from a bird's eye view a woman raise a shell to her lips. It was a large shell, almost the size of her head, and had spikes coming out of the sides. The inside was pink and the outside was a rough, rainbowy white, like the coral fortress.   
  
"Stop right there!" Link shouted, jumping down in front of the woman. His eyes widened as he looked up at the tall female. Momentarily surprised, he asked, "What are you?" The woman laughed, her large, round, yellow eyes fixed on the Hylian. The slits in those eyes were very long and thin, reptilian looking.  
  
"I, my young and very foolish friend, am Kadien, a siren. Have you never seen one before?" The top half of the woman appeared to be almost normal. Her face and arms were the color of a normal human's skin, and she had very blackish hair, with a red-orange tint. It was long and hung passed her waist, which was where she lost her resemblance to a human. Her bottom half was that of a water dragon. Her greenish blue-scaled haunches were bent in a half crouch, but still the woman towered over Link. She had a dragon tail, and the dragon scales came up from her dragon half, covering her chest and shoulders. She had a sea shell necklace, and her circular, large yellow eyes looked very misplaced on her human face. The odd creature laughed a hideous, high-pitched laugh, which opened her mouth wide enough for Link to see her teeth, which were as sharp as her nails. She then casted a spell which wrapped sea weed all around Link. "You are too late, Hylian. This shell will bring me enough sea snakes to make a great army out of, once I mutate them all to be large and fierce like the ones you met earlier. Now watch as I play the song of your kingdom's doom." The creature raised the shell to her mouth again, and began blowing on it. Link had the hearing of a Kokiri and couldn't hear it, but knew that innocent Hyrulian citizens would. He easily broke out of the sea weeds and shot an arrow at the shell. The projectile hit the shell out of her hands and it fell to the ground, clattering as a piece of it chipped off.   
  
"Dumb human!" Remorie growled, jumping between Link and Kadien. Kadien picked up the shell and the chipped piece, frowning.   
  
"Remorie, kill him while I fix this, will you?" She asked, seaching the shell for the chipped spot. The young sea dragon snapped at Link, who quickly took out his shield and blocked her strike. She growled as her nose slammed into the hard metal. She pulled her head back and put a small clawed hand on her snout, discovering that she had a bloody nose.  
  
"Why you..!!! You'll pay for that!" She shouted.  
  
"You did it to yourself," Link muttered, taking out his sword. The dragon casted a quick spell and a curved, split-blade sword appeared in her paw. "Now I've seen everything. A dragon that would rather fight with a sword than its claws and teeth!" Link slashed at the dragon and it reared up, rising above Link on its serpentine body. Remorie opened her mouth and her dragon breath came out, which was ice. Link moved in time to prevent getting frozen, but his sword had become encased in ice. The dragon quickly hit it out of his hands, and the frozen blade crashed to the ground. Link backfliped as Remorie tried to cut him with the sword. He then got out his bow and shot an arrow into the dragon's shoulder.   
  
"Aaarggg! I'll kill you!" The dragon roared, breathing more ice at Link.  
  
"We'll see about that!" Link yelled, easily dodging the blue, sparkling stream of breath. Remorie slithered rather than ran to the side of Link as he dodged, and managed to cut his shoulder with the sword, making two deep cuts in it. Link yelled and stopped, putting a hand over the wound, and Remorie dropped her sword. Grinning, the snake-like dragon quickly coiled around the bleeding Hylian, holding him tight.  
  
"Are you finished fixing the shell, My Lady?" Remorie asked her master, looking over at her.  
  
"Almost. I'm fixing it right now. What are you waiting for? If you're not going to sting him or freeze him, squeeze the life out of him!"  
  
"That's not very nice," Link gasped, grimacing as the dragon started trying to crush him. He struggled in the coils but found that he could barely move an inch.  
  
"Hahahah! I wonder what humans taste like?" The dragon pondered, listening to Link scream as she squeezed him very hard. As Link's hands were pushed up against his sides, he felt something metal digging into his arm. He remembered that he had put the dagger that he usually kept in his boot in his belt, and his hand could almost reach it. He struggled to get a hold on it, but it was very difficult under the tightening coils. Link tried to get a breath so he could use his gauntlets, but it was useless since the dragon's tight hold had compressed his lungs. He could feel that he didn't have much time before he went unconscious. "Stop resisting, you idiot. You'll only die tired," Remorie mocked. Link strained with all his remaining strength, and managed to get his fingers around the knife. He had just enough room next to his hand to pull the thing out of his belt and stick it into Remorie's scales. "Aahhhh! Curse you!" The dragon let go of Link and limped away from him, examining her stab wound. Link breathed deeply, picking up his bloody dagger, which had fallen out of the dragon.  
  
"I don't understand you evil creatures. You try to suffocate me and then complain when you get stabbed? No offense, but what a wimp!" Link put his dagger away in his boot and ran over to his sword. He freed it by breaking the ice with his hammer, then sheathed it, turning towards the moping dragon.   
  
"You cut my beautiful scales...say goodbye, human!" The dragon once again tried to freeze Link, but he got out his mirror shield and the ice reflected back towards the dragon. She let out one last shriek before she was frozen solid. Kadien had finished fixing the shell, and let out a cry of anger as she saw her pet freeze.   
  
"Remorie! You will die for this, Hylian. Just who the heck are you?!" She demanded, walking toward Link.  
  
"I'm Link, and I'll protect Hyrule as long as I live!"  
  
"Well, that won't be very long! Wait, Link..? I've heard that somewhere...oh yeah. Link?! iYou/i are the legendary Hero of Time?!" Kadien looked outraged.  
  
"Wow, everyone's heard of me, haven't they? Well yeah, I'm Link. Now be good and let me destroy that shell, or I'll have to fight you, Kadien."  
  
"Are you serious? 'Be good and let me destroy that shell'? You're ridiculous! Do you actually think I'll do what you ask?" Kadien stood up straight, to her full height. She was about eight feet tall, and she stared down at Link. Her tail started swishing angrily, and she started to glow blue. "Do you have any idea what I can do to you? Prepare to die!" The half-dragon, half-woman siren began chanting, and the room started quickly filling with clear, blue water. It filled up until there was only a foot of air left at the very top, and Kadien grinned at Link, expecting him to swim for it. Instead he stayed where he was, breathing by means of the zora's tunic. "What? You can breathe underwater? Impossible!" Link could somehow hear the siren's voice very clearly underwater. To his surprise, she could also hear his.  
  
"Nice tunic, huh? You should really consider getting some clothes. They might look better than just scales." Link said, taking out his hookshot, which was by far the easiest weapon to use underwater. He started to float upward, and put on the iron boots.  
  
"I don't need clothes! And thanks for telling me what helps you breathe underwater, idiot." She said, swimming around. She was a very good swimmer with her water dragon half.  
  
"Oops." Link said, pointing his hookshot at her in case she came close. She did swim close, and Link fired. Unfortunately the hookshot was much slower than the siren underwater, and she easily swam out of the way. She swam behind Link and raked his back with her dragon claws, giving him and his tunic three long slashes. Bubbles came from Link's mouth as he was roughly pushed forward from the strike, and he almost choked on the water he was breathing. iThat was weird. The tunic almost failed...oh, it's because she ripped it. I can't let her do that again./i Link took off the boots so he could move easier, but had to constantly swim slightly downwards or he would float to the top. Kadien swam in front of him, aiming the spines on her tail for his chest. Link swam backwards, and the spines missed him. Link shot his hookshot into the siren's tail, and it pulled her close. Link was about to attack her, but as the hookshot pulled her over to him she kicked him away with her dragon foot.  
  
The strong kick caused Link to flip backwards in the water, and as he righted himself he found Kadien right in his face. She dragged her sharp, claw-like fingernails through Link's chest, giving him and his blue suit five more scratches. That was all the tunic could take, and it stopped working.  
  
"Blast!" Link yelled as Kadien grabbed him in a tight embrace that he knew she would hold until he was dead. He struggled and found that the siren didn't have super strength because she almost couldn't hold him, and he wasn't even using the gauntlets. He tried to kick her a few times, but the skilled swimmer was not affected much. Although she ialmost/i let go, she didn't, and held tight until Link started tiring after a score of seconds. He had gotten a good breath before his tunic stoppped working, so he could stay underwater for a little over two minutes, but time was running out and he couldn't shake Kadien.  
  
"Hahahaha..." Kadien's formerly high-pitched laughing was replaced by deep, evil laughing. "Go ahead, Link, let some water into your lungs. You'll die very quickly, almost painlessly. You should be grateful that this is my favorite way to kill people and I'm not torturing you slowly or anything. Just die already!"  
  
iLike I have a choice! /iLink thought irritably. Link twisted repeatedly in Kadien's grasp, but she held tight and Link was getting very drowzy and the water around him seemed to be getting darker. He could feel that he was weakening.i I have to get to the surface! I can't take much more of this. /iHe struggled violently one last time, but then couldn't struggle any more. He consentrated all his mind on not trying to breathe. He knew the moment he tried to do that would be the moment he died. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and Kadien started laughing again.  
  
"Give it up! You can't get free, hahahahah!" Link couldn't take it anymore. He opened his mouth, bubbles came rising out, and he started choking on water. By now, Kadien was laughing so hard she wasn't paying attention. Link managed to get one arm out of her hold, then took out his dagger and stuck it in her dragon leg. She screetched in pain, letting him go. Link swam quickly to the top, gasping and coughing out water. Kadien was still trying to pull the dagger out and do the least amount of damage to her scales. She also swam upward, and her head surfaced ten feet in front of Link. "You are very lucky. This time, you're FINISHED!" The siren yanked the dagger out of her leg and threw it at Link, but he simply caught it and put it in his boot. Kadien started chanting again, and Link saw that the water level was rising again. Soon there would be nothing in the room but water. While Kadien was concentrating on her spell, Link swam up to her and punched her in the face. Her water spells required a great deal of power and concentration, and Kadien lost both as she was thrown back by the strong fist in her face. To Link's surprise, the punch not only disrupted the water level from rising, but also made it drop. The water was almost completely gone by the time Kadien got a hold of herself. She stood on the coral ground as the last of her magic water disappeared.  
  
"Why you...!!! You're really asking for it!" Kadien growled, shaking a fist in rage. She lunged at Link but he had seen it coming and sidestepped. He kicked her foot as she passed him, which sent her sprawling on her face. She jumped up and pointed a thin arm at Link, chanting an ice spell. Link's feet froze to the ground, and the ice started climbing up his ankles. Link quickly casted Din's Fire, which both melted the ice and singed Kadien before she could jump out of range. "Shoot, you really are the Hero of Time. I guess it's time to get serious. I wonder if you've noticed, there are no exits to this room except the one in the ceiling, and while my water dragon was trying to crush you I casted a growing spell on that hole. That doesn't make the hole grow, it makes coral grow over the hole. Your last escape rout is shrinking by the minute."   
  
"What?" Link looked up at the hole he had entered through, and found that it was indeed closing up. "I can just hit it with a bomb when I'm done with you." Link said, glaring at her. "And if that's the only exit or entrance, how did you get into his room? Teleportation?"  
  
"Why, yes, actually. You'll find that us sirens are able to learn scores of useful spells, and I hope you have about thirty bombs, because that's what it'll take to get out of here!" Link only had fifteen bombs left, so he hoped the siren was bluffing. He looked around the room, scanning for any way she and her pet could have enterred the room, other than teleportation. While he was looking, Kadien did a summoning spell and a long whip made of seaweed materialized in her hand. Link turned his attention back to her, realizing that she had been telling the truth. There were no ways out except the ceiling, but he could still throw a bomb at it, or even a bombchu. He had ten of those. Seeing the siren's new toy, Link took out his sword and shield.  
  
"You really do have a lot of magic, don't you? Well, I don't have all day, Kadien. Let's do this!" Link rushed forward, and Kadien lashed at him with the long, greenish whip. It snapped on his shield, and the pressure from it threw him off-balance for a second, but then he ran at her again. He tried cutting her legs, but she jumped over him and he skidded to a stop, quickly turning around. Kadien punched him in the forehead, and the suprisingly strong punch threw him to his back. "Huh? You weren't very strong in the water..."  
  
"Of course not. In the water I am a fast and skilled swimmer, but my strength isn't so great. On land, I can use the ground for leverage and use all my strength, which makes me much stronger. Die!" She lashed at Link again, whith the whip, but once again he blocked it with his shield. It make a loud snap but didn't do anything, and Link got to his feet. He took out his bow and aimed an arrow for Kadien, but she quickly chanted a shield spell, grinning at him from behind it. Link smiled back, and aimed his arrow for the Siren's Shell, on the ground behind Kadien; then let it fly.  
  
"Nooooo!" Kadien screetched as the shell was shattered into at least twenty pieces by the well-aimed arrow. "I can't fix that...you've just ruined my life, you stinking Hylian! BLAST YOU! All my dreams of making a grand sea snake army and conquering the world...gone!" Kadien looked both devistated and indescibably angry at the same time.   
  
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't let you. No one should have the right to rule over great kingdoms unless they are wise and righteous, like Daphnes Hyrule. Why don't you give up that fantasy of taking over and be good? I'm tired of trying to defeat a lady," Link said truthfully. He despised fighting females. As he stared at Kadien, all the emotion drained from her face. She looked like a stone statue, just staring at the shards of the Siren's Shell. The seaweed whip dropped from her hand, and then she had a thoughtful look on her face, as if she was really considering the idea of being good. Link waited for her to respond, but when she didn't, he looked up at the closing coral hole, putting away his sword and shield. He was sure his hookshot could probably stick to it, and was about to try it when he felt something strong and thin wrap around his neck. He put his hands on what he discovered was the whip and looked over at Kadien, who was now glaring at him madly. She, of course, had the handle of the whip in her hand. She yanked on it hard, pulling Link to the ground, and began to drag him closer. Link coughed, trying to get a good hold on the whip so he could pull it off. As he was dragged up next to Kadien's feet, she grinned down at him.  
  
"No, I can't have you getting free, little Hylian." She kicked him in the side hard enough to flip him over, so he was now resting on his chest. Kadien pulled both his arms behind his back and tied them with some magic ropes. She then lifted him off the ground by the whip, letting him hang. "Wow, Hylian. You feel heavy but you must not be too heavy since you neck hasn't broken. Oh well, you'll be dead in a few minutes anyway." Link gasped, the annoying whip was strangling him, but he couldn't reach any of his weapons with his hands tied. Then he remembered his dagger. The next time Kadien closed her eyes to laugh insanely, he pulled it from his boot and started trying to cut the ropes on his wrists with it. Kadien stopped laughing and focused on Link, determined to stay alert this time. She had already failed to do that, because Link was cutting the ropes and she didn't even see it. iHow did such a dull-sensed creature get so powerful?/i Link wondered. The whip holding him in the air was very painful, but it wasn't killing him yet. He almost had the ropes cut...  
  
"You don't look very worried. You are hiding something from me..." Kadien said quietly, surprising Link. He immediately pretended to be worried, and Kadien smirked. "Yes, you're definately up to something." Kadien was about to turn Link around, when the whip started really hurting. Link started choking and coughing, then got worried for real as he realized he might not be able to cut the ropes before he blacked out. He was already getting quite drowzy, and his tired hands worked slowly to free themselves. Luckily Kadien had forgotten about turning him around, prefering to watch his face. That was a big mistake, and Link finally felt the ropes slide off his hands. He immediately brought his dagger up and cut Kadien's face, then cut the whip. He fell to the ground, coughing and holding his sore neck, which he discovered was bleeding.  
  
"My face! My beautiful face! Alright, I can't beat you this way. Time to cheat!" Kadien growled, looking down at the Hylian she loathed. She began to sing.   
  
buSection 7  
  
Fear of Heights/u/b  
  
"Hey, no fair!" Link yelled, but then stopped talking to listen to the lovely singing. It was the most beautiful sound he'd every heard, and he couldn't resist. He stood up, gazing into space as the musical voice of the siren called out to him. iSo pretty...it makes me want to lay down and listen to it forever...but I can't!/i Link tried to get out of the trance the song was putting him in, but found that he didn't really want to snap out of it. He tried to convince himself that he did, but it was no use. Kadien walked up to the helpless warrior and bit his shoulder with her sharp teeth. They were covered in stinging jellyfish fluid, and the pain brought Link awake instantly.   
  
"Eeeaaugh!" Link yelled, as the stinging fluid entered the bite wound and made his shoulder feel like it was burning. He punched Kadien's face off him and backed away, putting a hand over the bite. The fluid then got on his hand, stinging it as well. "Yow, that's some really nasty saliva!" Link said, flinching and wondering if the fluid would stop any time soon. It did, and Link could only feel the bite. He was about to attack the siren, but she began singing again. "Oh no, not this time, Kadien!" Link easily resisted the song, taking out his sword and giving the siren a large slash across her midsection. She growled in fury, then picked something up that had been laying by her feet. It was the mini version of the Siren's Shell, in perfect condition and still set to the Kokiri frequency. "I wouldn't blow on that if I were you, Kadien. If you drive me into an insane bloodlust, you're the only person around for me to attack!"  
  
"You are wrong, Hylian. You were around twenty or thirty feet away from this shell when Remorie played it. You are very close now, and you'll find it has quite a different effect when you're right next to it. She blew on the shell hard, and Link felt like his head would explode from the loudness of the shrieking song of the Siren's Shell in his ears. It was just as bad as the real siren's shell, except this time Link didn't black out or feel violent. He only felt pain, and tried to cover his ears, dropping to his knees. His hands did nothing to muffle the noise, and Link thought frantically of all his items, wondering if he had anything he could stick in his ears. Link looked down at the ground, knowing he had nothing. He vaguely noted the shining coral under his knees as the sound filled his head with agony. It was shining a greenish color and was bumpy. It almost looked like lichen or moss...iMoss!/i Link remembered Geda and her present. (this is at the beginning of chap 13. If you missed it the first time when I posted it incorrectly, it's updated now) He took out the two little puffs of moss and stuck them in his ears. Instantly, all was silent for the Hylian. He took out his bow and destroyed the small shell in Kadien's hands.  
  
"What? How..? Curse you! I'll kill you and store your bones in Davy Jone's locker!" But Link couldn't hear her. He took the moss out and put it back in his pocket.   
  
"What did you say?" He asked.  
  
"Die, human! I know just what to do to you!" She started chanting, and Link couldn't do anything but take out his shield before the spell took effect. It was a mutation spell, and it's victim writhed as arms and legs disappeared and nose became scaley snout. Kadien had turned into a hideously deformed sea snake. "What? Noooooo!" She looked over at Link, who held his mirror shield. In it, she saw her ugly face. "Aaaahhhhh!" With an awful shriek, the snake exploded in a blue, clearish wave of magic.   
  
"Whoa..." Link muttered, staring at the space Kadien had just stood in. He hadn't known that his shield deflected mutaion spells like that. He was pulled from his thoughts as the coral castle started shuddering, and a chunk of ceiling coral nearly fell on him as it was shaken loose. "Time to go!" Link searched again for the hole in the ceiling. It was still there, but only big enough that Link could just barely sqeeze through it if he could even get up there. Link shot his hookshot at the hole, but it bounced off the tough coral inside and around it. "Uh-oh! I thought the coral was kindof soft! She must have been growing really tough coral up there, and that's why she told me I needed thirty bombs! That's not good..." Link stopped talking to himself and ran over to the closest wall, putting a bomb next to it. The bomb blew a hole, but the hole was not connected to anything. He blew another hole oinside the first on, and another,making a wide tunnel with bomb explosions. After using up all fifteen bombs and six bombchus, and nearly getting crushed twice in the process, he finally blew a tunnel that led into a room. Link ran inot the room and discovered it was the room with a pool full of hundreds, maybe thousands of sea snakes; and he was on the wrong side of the pool.   
  
With all the shaking the castle was doing, it shook loose some glowing barnicles from the ceiling of the room, and they fell into the snake pool, sinking slowly. One fell past a hole in the pool, which had been grown over by soft coral. Link shot an ice arrow at the hole and the arrow plunged into the water and stuck into the coral, freezing it. He then hit it with an arrow, which broke it. The sea snakes were now free, and they all eagerly swam out the new passage. Link swam across the pool, now almost completely empty of sea snakes, and dashed down the hall on the other side. Falling coral fell on him once or twice, but never big enough to do any damage. After a few minutes of exhausting sprinting, Link came to the room he and Zelda had defeated the mutated snakes in. To his dismay, it was completely filled with crumbled coral because it's roof had caved in. Link used his last four bomchus in an effort to blow through the debris, but it didn't do much. He then ran over to the pile and began throwing aside chunks of coral, but knew he would never get out before the coral directly over him came crashing down. Suddenly he heard a voice.  
  
"Link, get away from the coral pile, you moron! Hurry up!" Surprised, Link obeyed the muffled voice that seemed to be coming from the other side of the pile. There was a huge explosion that knocked Link to the ground, but he got up and saw that the way forward was clear. Befire him stood Cyphas and Sheik. "Come on, Link! Let's go!" Cyphas dragged him to his feet and the three of them ran as fast as they could toward the exit of the castle.   
  
"How did you get down here?" Link asked, panting as he ran beside Sheik.   
  
"Cyphas has this weird device that lets me breathe underwater and she gave it to me. I would have used my spell because my magic regenerated, but she told me to save it for that explosion I just made. She's half zora, so she swam down here with me pretty easily, in like a minute and a half. What happened to your tunic?"  
  
"It doesn't work but I can hold my breath for two minutes if she can get us to the surface that fast. Thanks for coming."  
  
"I told you I'd get you out of trouble some time! Now do you know how I feel?" Link grinned but didn't talk, wanting to save his breath for running. The three companions, after much running and dodging, finally reached the exit of the castle. They swam out into the ocean, and Cyphas grabbed them both, speeding towards the surface of the water with her fins. Link noticed for the first time that she had taken her boots off, and had fins next to her ankles that were just like the ones on her forearms. The escaping sea snakes and cidids were everywhere, but ignored Cyphas as she speeded past because they were preoccupied with getting as far away from the colaspsing castle as possible.   
  
Cyphas was almost to the top, when she had to swim through a whole school of cidids. There was no way around it, so she just swam through it heedlessly. She obviously hadn't been warned of the insects' powerful sting. Some cidids stuck onto the three swimers as they swam past, and Link busied himself with brushing them off Cyphas and Zelda. There didn't seem to be any on him, but he didn't see the one on his back. Just as Link brushed the last cidid off Cyphas, the frightened insect stung him. iThat sucks!/i Link thought as his body started to get ridgid from the paralyzing venom. He lost control of body and blacked out as water rushed in.   
  
"He's not breathing, princess! Get off him, you're not helping! You can't heal that sort of thing, now imove!/i" Sheik took her hands off the motionless Link and backed up, panicking. She had healed all his cuts and bruises, but he was still motionless.  
  
"What can we do?!" She yelled, looking around at all the griffons surrounding them. Kars had flown them to the cave they were in, and Naltha and some sea griffons were in it.   
  
"Hit his stomach," a sea griffon suggested casually. "It'll get the water out of him. If he's been uncouncious that long, it's the only thing that will work." Cyphas glared at the beast.   
  
"iHit/i him? Yeah, that will do a lot of good!" She growled. Sheik put a hand over her mouth, looking down worriedly at Link.   
  
"I'm serious! CPR won't work at this point you have to hit him hard or he'll die. Trust me." The griffon said, not really caring if Link lived or died but getting irritated at all the chaos around him.  
  
"What the heck is CPR? Dangit, I have no choice. Forgive me, Link!" Cyphas raised a strong fist and drove it very hard into the Hylian's stomach. He curled up, coughing out lots of water and gasping for air. As soon as Link felt like he could move without spewing more water, he looked around at all the creatures surrounding him. Kozin stood in a corner of the cave.   
  
"I saved...your snakes..." Link said, still gasping.   
  
"Yeah! You're all right!" Sheik almost hugged him, but stopped herself as she became conscious of all the watching griffons. The King of sea griffons laughed.   
  
"So you did, my good hero. Release Naltha." He ordered, and the griffons holding her did so. Link turned to Cyphas. "Thanks..." He said, holding his stomach.   
  
"Sure. I'll punch you anytime you want, heh heh." She stared down at the confused Link. "Just kidding, sheesh!" Link started laughing but stopped as he realized how much his head hurt.   
  
"Well, I'm certain you strange creatures will be wanting to get back to Hyrule. Naltha told me all about it, and it sounds like a rather nice place. My griffons are the fastest creatures in the sky when they cast haste spells on themselves, so they can get you home in no time. I want them to go to Hyrule and talk with your King, I am interested in trading with or maybe joining your country," The King revealed. A dozen minuted later, the Hylians and half-Hylian were seated on sea griffons with haste spells, and Naltha and Kars were flying behind with their gear, also enchanted. Even though both the sea griffons and mountain griffons were enchanted with haste spells, Naltha and Kars were a little faster that their blue cousins when they weren't flying over water. The two mountain griffons hung behind so they wouldn't pass the beasts.  
  
"Why did you come to the ocean, Cyphas?" Link asked the halfbreed, who was seated on a griffon next to him.   
  
"I decided your butt would need saving sometime soon. I came to help you with your mission...because I, too, heard the sound. I heard it for a brief second just after you and Zelda left. I decided I had to help you get rid of it before it drove me crazy and I started attacking my fairy friends. Looks like I didn't show up a moment too soon!"  
  
"Definately not. So, are you coming to Hyrule with us?"  
  
"No. I asked this griffon to drop me off. We should be reaching the drop-off spot in a few minutes. I sure will miss getting you out of trouble..." She said, snickering. Link laughed, and soon the griffons came to the drop-ff point. They put Cyphas on the ground, and Link and Sheik waved as the formation rose to the skies again. Even though they were flying through mist, the griffons knew where they were going because there was mist over the ocean often, and they had grown up training to see in the mist. It only took a few hours to reach Hyrule, and the griffons didn't meet any resistance on the way. As soon as they were out of the mist and in the open air of Hyrule, the sea griffons couldn't resist doing a few tricks. Sheik yelled in exitement as her girffon did a barrel-roll. Link screamed in terror and clung for dear life to his griffons as it did two loops. The female griffon giggled at her frightened passenger and flew straight. The other griffons followed her example, and soon they were all headed for Hyrule Castle. The blue griffons and their passengers landed in the Hyrule Castle courtyard, and the King was there to greet them.  
  
"Welcome, my friends from the water." The King said, observing the griffons' aquatic-looking features. Then he spotted Zelda and Link. "Where ihave/i you been?! I told you to stay here, and you deliberately disobeyed my orders!" Sheik slid off her mount reluctantly, but Link was all too happy to get off his.   
  
"It's my fault, father. I convinced Link to came with me to the swamp..."  
  
"But it was my idea in the first place, Zelda. I'm the one who let you come along-"  
  
"You're both grounded!" The King growled. Link and Sheik looked at him. "Oh, I'm just joking. I'm sure you two just saved Hyrule from a terrible catastrophe, and you both came back in one piece. Just don't get any ideas about disobeying me again!"  
  
"Yes, father." Zelda said, walking toward her room. She really wanted to take a nap.  
  
"Yes, King Daphnes." Link said, following her. His room was next to hers and he was going to take a nap, too. As they left, King Daphnes talked with the sea griffons.  
  
"Well, I'm glad that's over." Sheik said, turning back into Zelda.   
  
"Yeah," Link agreed. "I'm glad you didn't have to fight Kadien! She was terrible." Zelda glared at him.  
  
"Are you saying I'm too weak to have been able to help you? After I had Cyphas swim down there with me so I could blow you out of-"  
  
"No, no! Of course not! I'm just glad you didn't get hurt, at least, not very bad." Zelda grinned.  
  
"Well, fine then. In that case, I'm glad you didn't die. But you proably ialmost/i died at least ten times! You really ought to be more careful. Din, Faore, and Nayru must really favor you." She said, smiling over at him. "You worry me sometimes..."  
  
"I'm sorry, but you know there's no other way. I'm really grateful you came down there to save me..." He said, smiling back. He vaguely noted how pretty Zelda's smile was...  
  
"There you are!" Both Chain and Impa stood in front of Link and Zelda. Impa was about to chew them out for sneaking out, but decided against it when she saw how tired they looked. She thought a mild repremanding would do. "Thank you for saving Hyrule, but don't take Zelda on such a dangerous trip ever again." She said to Link sternly. "Well, did you have a nice flight?" Impa asked Link.  
  
"I hate flying...I mean, well I'm not scared of heights anymore!" Link declared.  
  
"Oh really..." Chain said, grinning at Impa in a way Link definately didn't like. Impa walked up to Link and picked him up, walking over to the nearest window.   
  
"Don't worry, Link...I just want you to see Death Mountain!" She said, holding him out of it.  
  
"Whaaa! Okay, okay, I see it! Don't drop meee!"   
  
hullo, thanks for reading! Want to know exactly what Kadien looks like? Go to devintart.com and sign up (It's a really great site, and worth the trouble). then when you're on your devart homepage go tot he browser bar thingie and erase your name. Replace it with Talonclawfange and you'll be taken to my page, where you can look at my fanfiction pictures, including a very detailed one of Kadien. As for the next story...Link's attacked by a black assasin in his sleep, and Hyrule is being seiged by oddly violent storms. Can link find out why? Will he even survive!? Sorry, got carried away. See ya next time. -Talonclawfange 


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